Life On Live
by baby5oh
Summary: You've all heard of Alfea's glittering cohort of fairy princesses; you've heard of Red Fountain's dashing royal heroes. Being rich, young, splendidly attractive- that's what going to school in Magix stands for, isn't it? Obviously, you haven't heard of the scholarship students. As a ragtag bunch of misfits are brought to the fore, what dirty secrets will be exposed? SYOC open.
1. Application Form

**Life on Live: SYOC**

_You've all heard of Alfea's glittering cohort of fairy princesses, graduating with their Enchantix forms and equipped with the skills and knowledge to assume leadership of their respective planets and countries, all while looking uncontrollably fabulous. You've heard of Red Fountain's royal heroes, the pride of the dimension's youth, the object of many a princess' infatuation and the envy of young men everywhere. Being rich, young, splendidly attractive- that's what going to school in Magix stands for, isn't it? Fame, power, admiration- isn't this the life of an idol of the academic world?_

_Obviously you haven't heard of the scholarship students._

_It seems that it's come time for the world to see what really lies behind that shimmering facade. As a ragtag bunch of scholarship misfits are brought to the fore interdimensional television, what other dirty secrets will be exposed?_

Hi everyone~ So it's super irresponsible of me to start a fanfiction right now but here I am. Life on Live centres on the concept of reality television, and how much to that 'reality' is actually real. So here are the rules:

**IMPORTANT NOTICE: Submissions for protagonists, i.e. scholarship kids, have now been closed. Antagonist submissions are still open.**

1. You must have an account to submit. Anonymous submissions will most likely be disregarded.

2. Mary Sues and Gary Stus will be summarily keel-hauled.

3. Please put thought, description and detail into your application, and try to follow word counts where I've put them. Characters will be chosen based on the quality of the application and I will PM authors whose characters have been chosen. Additionally, characters that have been previously submitted to other SYOC stories have a very low chance of being chosen.

4. Characters cannot be related to the Winx. It's also preferred that they aren't related to any sort of royalty.

I will accept a bit of cross-over between schools and variation in skill and power levels, such as boys with powers, girls who haven't achieved/don't have a transformation, unconventional power sources, etc. If I'm going to accept your character then I'll clarify these details with you. There are three types of scholarships- power (based on the amount of magical power/potential that the individual possesses), skills (special skills such as advanced combat, dragon riding, etc.) and academic (grade-based) scholarships; please explain the skill or power that the achieved scholarship for under scholarship type. Also, under personality, there is a section asking why your character does not fit in with the rest of their school mates. Please try to explain this clearly and well and avoid cliches or stereotypes.

_Application Form for Antagonists: this is the same form as for the scholarship kids, except focusing on the opposite side of the spectrum- the rich, beautiful and bourgeois of Alfea and Red Fountain who make life difficult for the scholarship kids. However, requirements for antagonists that are different to what's required for protagonists (e.g., how they gained admission to Alfea/RF, why they fit in, why they dislike scholarship kids etc.) are listed in square brackets in bold. So certain elements of the form will have two options, one for protagonist and one for antagonist. If submitting an antagonist, only give the information that is requested in the square brackets._

**Application:**

_General_

Name:

Nickname/s:

Age:

Gender:

School:

Partial or full scholarship: **[NOT APPLICABLE FOR ANTAGONISTS]**

Scholarship type: **[How did they gain admission into Alfea/RF? (cannot be through scholarship)]**

_Powers and Skills_

Primary power/skill: (describe in at least 50 words)

Weapon: (if applicable)

Techniques: **[Not required for antagonists]****  
**

Attacks: **[Not required for antagonists]**

Defences: **[Not required for antagonists]**

Additional skills/powers/abilities: (no more than two)

Hobbies and pastimes:

Grades: (letter grades and subjects they tend to be good at/bad at)

_Appearance and Clothing_

Height: (either an imperial or metric measurement is fine)

Body type: (describe musculature and body shape, e.g., hourglass, pear, column, apple etc.)

Skin colour and quality:

Hair colour, style and texture:

Face shape:

Eye colour, size and shape:

Nose:

Lips:

Natural markings: (birthmarks, freckles, moles etc.)

Unnatural markings: (tattoos, piercings, scars etc.)

Everyday clothing style: (including what they are uncomfortable with wearing)

Winx/Specialist gem colour:

_Personality_

Basic personality: (at least 100 words)

Likes:

Dislikes:

Fears:

Flaws:

Best traits:

Introvert or extrovert:

Why they don't fit in: **[Why they are popular/fit in and/or dislike scholarship students]**

_Bio and Relationships_

Basic bio:

Family:

People they tend to get along with:

People they tend to dislike:

People they tend to crush on:

People they find physically attractive:

How they interact with friends:

How they interact with crushes:

How they interact with people they dislike:

How they react to authority figures:

**[How they interact with the scholarship students:]**

Any additional information:


	2. Received Applications and Sample

**Received Applications and Sample Profile**

Thanks for everyone who's responded so far through reviews and PMs. At the moment, applications are still wide open and I encourage anyone to give it a go and apply. So far I've **received** these applications:

-Danniella Rosalie Summers, from XxCrazyItsTruexCrazy4UxX

-Marlena Yancey from doublem9327

-Toni Jacobs from .

-Kole Anderson, from MintCookieMonsterr

-Seychelle Wang, from Alexandra989

-Claire Marie Knightly, from StarsMagic

-Dominic Rowan, from Paperman0

-Heath Elron, from Meteorthunder3

-Ellie Marsh, from Mean Is My Middle Name

-Charlotte Yukihoru, from Storm229

-Elizabeth Powers, from crafty chick

-Lukas Madorie, from dinosaywhat99

-Alexandra Leano, from Meteorthunder3 [antagonist]

I'll post a complete accepted characters list once I've assembled the cast; this is just to let any subbers know that their character has been safely delivered into my inbox :)

Some sections of the application form seem to be causing a bit of confusion, so I thought I'd enclose my character's form as a sample~ (However, I tend to be _very _detailed with my applications so don't stress if you haven't written as much.)

_General_

Name: Rinzen Zsanika Jang.

Nickname/s: Rin, Rinni, Zen-zen, Rinzen-sunbae. It is unknown why Rinzen is addressed as 'sunbae' rather than 'senpai' or just by her given name, but it was probably bestowed by one of her underclassmen and instantly stuck.

Age: 18, 3rd year.

Gender: Female

School: Alfea. It is very ambiguous as to whether she is a fairy or a witch or neither.

Partial or full scholarship: Full scholarship

Scholarship type: Power. On her official record, however, she has a Potionology academic scholarship since Rinzen should have, in all fairness, gone to Cloud Tower. However, Alfea claimed her on a free ride scholarship to 'safeguard' her powers against the possibility of her turning to the dark side.

_Powers and Skills_

Primary power/skill: Rinzen is a trace, with the ability to trace an object or person's history through touch. In some cases she can also look into the future through certain objects, read thoughts and feelings and is able to take and give energy through skin to skin contact. Rinzen's trace powers are actually quite dangerous and enable her to kill by wiping out a person's vital energy completely. Also, she's constantly bombarded by fragments of history from her use of everyday objects, but she's learned to block and to wear gloves as much as possible.

Weapon: Her primary weapon is her powers, but she packs a pair of black leather gloves with metal plates on the knuckles for a mean punch.

Techniques: Rinzen is not a fighter. She's more of a lurker and would rather be supervising at base than be in the action. However she has basic hand-to-hand training and can deflect sword blows with her gloves.

Attacks: Again, as not much of a fighter, all she does is jump between enemies and draining energy to lend a hand to her actual fighter friends. She doesn't have a transformation that anyone knows of yet, even in the two years that she's been at Alfea. At most, she'll hit with a couple of punches and a backhand before jumping out of the way and letting another person deal the finishing blow.

Defences: Basic blocks and deflections with her gloves and jumping out of the way are pretty much the way it goes with Rinzen.

Additional skills/powers/abilities: Another special ability of the trace is to pull themselves through time for very limited amounts of time. In this way, Rinzen often 'jumps' from place to place with the appearance of teleportation. It's not, really, though.

Hobbies and pastimes: Brewing potions, poisons especially, reading in the greenhouse, target practice, sleeping, pretending to be unable to hear people.

Grades: Rinzen tends to be an average student in everything except potionology because she doesn't put in effort. She could be a relatively good student with high Bs and As if she studied and paid attention, but she uses class time as her secondary nap allotment and so gets pretty mediocre Cs. However, her potionology grades are outstanding.

_Appearance and Clothing_

Height: She's tall, at 5'10".

Body type: Rinzen is quite lanky and thin, looking somewhat disproportionate, as if she's been stretched going through time rips. She's rather column shaped, with a modest chest and slim hips; it's hard to tell where her waist lies. She doesn't carry a lot of muscle and you can see her ribs when she stretches upwards.

Skin colour and quality: Pale, average skin. She doesn't tan or freckle and she's already outgrown her acne stage.

Hair colour, style and texture: Her hair is thick but fine, cut into a chin-length bob with a side part. Her hair is black, but it bleached blonde from eye-level down.

Face shape: Rinzen has very sharp features in her heart shaped face, with prominent cheekbones and a strong, sleek jawline.

Eye colour, size and shape: Her eyes are narrow and slanted, and people often call them fox-like. They're a very dark brown, and seem to have a permanent gel-eyeliner outline. If asked to name the scariest thing about Rinzen, her eyes would come a close second to her personality.

Nose: A sharp razor of a thing, her nose is one of the strong features of her face.

Lips: Average, not thin, not thick. Her cupid's bow is not very pronounced at all.

Natural markings: A birthmark on her torso under her left shoulder blade, and a trio of moles on the inside of her right ankle that make a triangle when you join them up.

Unnatural markings: She has a tribal back tattoo of wings that stretches across her shoulder blades, tapering down to finish at her waist. Rinzen has the standard double lobe piercings and a ring in the cartilage of her right ear.

Everyday clothing style: Rinzen wears a lot of black shapeless things with long sleeves. She doesn't wear a lot of colour and her standard attire is a long-sleeved black sweater, a calf- to floor-length skirt and heavy boots. On occasion, she does wear cargo pants and black jeans; cold weather calls for a variety of scarves and her signature stove-pipe collared coat. Her style is best described as an extravagant form of the utilitarian, with very little surface decoration. She has very low consciousness for modesty and could probably strip naked in a room full of people if she had to; however, she does not like to wear bright colours or pastels and does not like anyone dressing her or doing her makeup.

Winx/Specialist gem colour: As far as anyone knows, Rinzen doesn't have a transformation, but her colour would be black if she had to nominate one.

_Personality_

Basic personality: Rinzen is the ultimate creepy sunbae to the rest of the younger scholarship girls at Alfea. She's one of those people that seem like they're more psychotic than they let on, and it's pretty true in Rinzen's case. Untalkative and abrupt to the point of rudeness when she does, Rinzen lives off in her own world. Even when she's not speaking, she's morbid, antisocial and indifferent to everything that goes on around her. Sometimes she fantasizes about homicide and has a notebook of morbid ideas tucked into the expanse of her skirts at all times. She has a very long attention span and is very focused, but pretty much dislikes the concept of other human beings entirely. She doesn't like being talked to, talking, working in groups or having to acknowledge other people. She's quite cold and often ignores other people. It's in her nature to be an extremely poor conversationalist. As a loner, she isn't popular but she is scary, always knowing exactly what threats to make to influence people when she needs them to stay away. Acquired as a result of constantly absorbing people's personal histories through her powers, Rinzen is a master at reading people and interpreting both their statements and body language to paint an accurate picture of what they're thinking or feeling at the time.

Rinzen is offbeat and eccentric, and it shows in her rare bursts of speech and the even rarer incidences of her macabre sense of humour. She hates being interrupted when in anything and has a volatile temperament that can switch from perfectly neutral to physically violent in a second. However, her impassive facade never lets up regardless of what she's feeling or doing. Rinzen is pathologically incapable of expressing emotion; a sociopath to an extent, she doesn't empathise with others even if she knows exactly how they feel or think. She's a good judge of character but is rather fixed in her judgements. It's difficult to convince Rinzen to change her mind or opinions, because she is easily bored and immediately switches off to other people, even in the middle of conversations.

She doesn't respond well to authority figures and as a general rule completely ignores them. She's unhelpful, uncaring and uncommitted to everything except her own aims and will save herself before others. She is a manipulator and consciously influences the people around her when she needs to, but prefers to be alone where it is much less complicated. She's happy doing tasks that require concentration and attention to detail and is a perfectionist. Rinzen gains the most satisfaction from creating things rather than learning or absorbing things but will drop irrelevant skills or activities once she gets bored of them. She isn't easily influenced by other people and doesn't follow the trends. Rinzen has a very concrete sense of who she is as an individual and does not allow other people's thoughts about her to shape her personality.

She doesn't look like it, but she's inventive and creative with the things she is interested in. She's smart, but people don't often see far beyond her scary creepy exterior; she enjoys perfecting her skills and is a great, if private, innovator. She finds being alone is so much more conducive to inventiveness than having people constantly hovering around; the only things that will really make her mad are people who interrupt her creative process in a major way, or steal her ideas and sell them as their own. She has the capacity to be a very authoritative figure, but she prefers to blend and fade into the background because she doesn't like working in teams.

Despite all of this, Rinzen has a soft spot (or as much of a soft spot as Rinzen can have) for the younger scholarship kids and her influence has pretty much scared off any upperclassmen from bullying these kids. However, that doesn't mean that Rinzen tolerates them any better than anyone else.

Likes: Being alone, studying poisons and poisonous plants, quiet, warm weather, walking through a corridor and having people part before her like the red sea, other morbid people.

Dislikes: Loud, obnoxious people, excessive background noise, most girls in her year, people in general, group work, physical activity and the outdoors.

Fears: Liking people, friends, becoming dependent on another person, becoming susceptible to external influences.

Flaws: Uncommunicative, scares people off, harsh, cold, apathetic, morbid, becomes rather set in her judgement of people, manipulator, selfish, not a team player.

Best traits: Strong sense of identity, inventive, good judge of character, interprets body language well, level-headed, perfectionist, strong will.

Introvert or extrovert: Introvert. She likes being alone, or rather doesn't like other people in general.

Why they don't fit in: Rinzen is a scary creep. Enough said.

_Bio and Relationships_

Basic bio: Not a lot is known about Rinzen, except for the fact that she just turned up in front of Alfea one day, poking holes into the fabric of time and space. In her early teens, she went a bit off the rails because of the influence of the constant feed of history that she got from her trace abilities, and ended up being briefly institutionalised. She took medication to help cope with the influences of her powers until she got a better handle on them during her first year at Alfea; the constant feed of feelings and thoughts into her consciousness contributed a lot to her slightly cracked nature and interactions with other people. Rinzen does not have a family that anyone knows of and there are no records of her existence prior to her enrolment into Alfea.

Family: None that are known.

People they tend to get along with: Rinzen tends to get along with the silent type and tolerates boys better than girls. Still, she doesn't tolerate people for longer than half an hour at a time, no matter how much they may 'click'. There is no specific formula for people that Rinzen gets along with; she tends to go along with her first impression and what she's read of them from their body language.

People they tend to dislike: Rinzen does not like people who have an artificial or superficial personality; she doesn't like vain, shallow people and does not take kindly to people who gossip about her behind her back. Of course, obnoxious, loud, or meddling people will be forcibly ejected from her presence immediately.

People they tend to crush on: She doesn't crush on people so much as want to use their bodies for salacious purposes.

People they find physically attractive: She likes slender flower boys with milky skin and has a neck and collarbone fetish. She doesn't have a particular type of girl that she likes, but she knows from experience that she can be attracted to girls.

How they interact with friends: Ignores them, talks to them without telling them to go away more than once in five sentences, shoves them and ruffles their hair, ignores them again. She's not the friendliest or most affectionate; people tend to declare themselves her friend and if she goes along with it then they are. She's reliable and gives good advice if her friends are dedicated enough to squeeze answers out of her. Still, she doesn't converse and skinship is a no-go.

How they interact with crushes: She's even more uncommunicative than usual. She tends to ignore the object of her lust or creepy-stare them into oblivion.

How they interact with people they dislike: She turns around and walks away. She won't waste time dealing with people she doesn't like. At the most extreme, she'll bitch slap them and then walk away.

How they react to authority figures: She sleeps in class, tune out lectures and expressly disobeys orders. She has problems being told what to do, so mainly teachers leave her alone- if she attends class, then that's the best they can get out of her.

Any additional information: Rinzen spends most of her time in the memorial greenhouse, cultivating poisonous plants and trimming them to add to her potionology supplies. She has a relatively deep but smooth voice.

KEEP SUBMITTING~! And go check out my other story, Bloodlines, if you need something to tide you over until I post the accepted characters list and chapter 1 *shamelessly self-promoting* Thanks everyone :)


	3. Accepted Characters

**Accepted Characters**

This is the list of characters that I have definitely accepted so far, but I may add to this list as more applications come in. Applications are still open, but I would much prefer boys over girls. Also, if you wish to submit an antagonist (e.g., a bully or a spoilt non-scholarship kid), feel free to go ahead and send me one- I've added amended details to the application form in chapter 1. I'm not sure how many of these I'll be accepting, but standard procedure still applies- I'll PM you if you've been accepted.

Thank you to all submitters and sorry to those I haven't been able to accept :L. Without further ado, the **ACCEPTED CHARACTERS ARE:**

* * *

1st Years:

_Marlena 'Mars' Yancey_

Marlena is an intelligent and determined girl, who is a bit strange and random at times. She has the biggest temper known to man, but she always has it under control and keeps it in her head; thank god no one can read minds! She hates it when people are depressed and helps cheer them up, and is very talkative. Oddly enough, she mumbles a lot, and she gets frustrated when people can't hear her; she talks too fast and sometimes slurs over her words or switches a letter or two up. She is very bubbly, and has a sense of humor that is 'hilarious' mixed with 'kind of weird' and 'random,' but it will make you laugh regardless. She doesn't take criticism very well, but gives a good critique herself. Marlena is always afraid she isn't good enough, or if she looks cute enough, or if anything she does is enough; but she tries her best.

Marlena is logical, and comes off as pessimistic sometimes when analyzing situations. She can be sarcastic and cold on days that aren't going her way, which is what led to her having a foul mouth. Marlena can be very passive, and not give her opinion on somethings, but may give her opinion on another if it's important. She's also very indecisive, and has trouble making simple decisions. She doesn't like change at all, but can adapt to it quickly; she can trust people easily but likes to be on her own to clear her head everyday. She would do anything for her family. When she's with people she doesn't know, she can't start conversations, or hold on very well. She's afraid that people secretly dislike her, and she's afraid of being left out of something. Marlena wonders why she doesn't have a boyfriend, or why boys aren't interested in her, and she's worried something is wrong with her.

_Ellie Marsh_

To get it over with, Ellie's a mute. She quit talking when she was young, and usually communicates through pencil and paper, and the only time you can hear her talk in when she whispers her attack name. Ellie is very helpful and is a good listener. She will help you when your in need, and be there for a shoulder to cry on. She is a kind girl, and can comfort somebody, without needing anything to be said. She is a good listener, a trait she picked up when she quit talking. She can listen to somebody drone on and on and not fall asleep once.

She is very naive and doesn't know many things that other people know, like sometimes violence is the only answer, and that not all people are good. She can be a bit awkward, since she'll just stare at you, and not say anything. She's also very clumsy and can trip over the littlest of things, and spill a full glass of water on the ground. She's very reliable, and try to do everything she is told. She's very obedient, which can be her downfall, if she's told to jump off a cliff, she may very well try it. She's very attached, and sticks to (if she has) friends like glue. She doesn't mind if she is alone, but hates to be lost. Ellie is easily scared too, and can be scared of the simplest of things, she jumps about fifty feet in the air when a pot is dropped or something.

_Heath Elron_

Heath is pretty quiet and prefers the peaceful silent atmosphere occasionally accompanied by the tinkering of machines or the sound of nature. He tends to react rather violently when subjected to loud and annoying music. In fact most, if not all, of the music that plays on his headset are usually symphonies or classics. He can be quite distant but not out of choice but necessity to keep his ability to 'hear' machines a secret. This usually leads people to believe that he is unsociable. Another quirk that he has is that he never uses 'it' when addressing technological objects always using him or her.

Once you get to know him he can be quite the listener and will always be there should someone need to talk. He prefers to listen than talk though but will try to give a conversation. He is also an adrenaline junkie, even though his outward persona doesn't show it, which only becomes obvious when his piloting something or is actually feeling the adrenaline rush. Actually, it's only during his adrenaline rushes that he listens to fast paced and wild music. He is also a night owl, and really hates having to wake up early, often giving anyone who wakes him up early for nothing important with a cold shoulder for the entire day.

* * *

2nd Years:

_Claire 'Aire' Marie Knightly_

Claire is a sweet, caring, down to earth girl. She is shy and has a hard time getting herself out there but once she does, she is very friendly to everyone. When she has her 'visions' of the future (a product of her time-related powers} she gets terrified or uncomfortable. She never tells anyone what she sees but instead holds them into herself. Claire is innocent too. She likes to play up the fact that she's not the sharpest knife in the drawer. She's too naïve for her own good and is too trusting of everyone. She doesn't like to hurt things or people but does it to protect her friends if she has too. Claire is very insecure and also quiet. She is a people pleaser and just wants to make everyone happy.

On the other hand, Claire is also very sensitive. She takes everything anyone says to her to heart. She is quick tempered and a little bi-polar. She is depend on her friends and doesn't like fighting with them. Claire has a hard time understanding when and when not to be serious. Because of her powers, she likes to joke around and pretend that everything a game. She has a care free attitude and a positive demeanor that tends to be contagious. She is a studious student and tries hard for her grades. She isn't the smartest student in class but she definite tries the hardest.

Claire is like the little sister everyone has allows wanted. People feel like they have to protect her naturally. She looks like she can't hold out on her own, but most of the time she can. She is pretty good at listening and giving advice to people, sometimes her advice doesn't make sense, but in a way, it always works out. Claire may be over sensitive, dramatic, naïve, insecure, and a little too clowny, but that's her way of dealing with the world around her. She chooses to block it out. Claire has selective hearing. If she doesn't want to hear it, she won't listen. If she doesn't like it, she'll block it from her memory. Claire is a foolish girl and likes to share her opinions with the world. She is also a good friend. She will always back her friends back and will never allow them to do something alone.

Claire is sometimes considered a threat by other girls, mostly because she can be. She is very good at switching her personalities from sweet to overly competitive, from shy to ambitious and outgoing, and from being the most carefree person to having the weight of the world crush her. People don't seem to get that Claire is one of the most unique but different people they'll ever meet. Claire can't help but try to be passionate and good at everything; it was just the way she was brought up. When she was younger, if she didn't place first, she would be shunned or even beaten by her father. It was ** her, since she was such a people pleaser.

Claire, despite the way she acts, has always felt alone. She feels like no one knows what she going through and what she sees. She just wants to be accepted and liked.

_Charlotte Yukihoru  
_

Charlotte is not a very lady-like sort of person, even though she is musical. She's not afraid to express her thoughts out loud, and can come off as rough. Charlotte, even being so confident, does not like socialising. She keeps to herself and her instruments most of the time, and ignored other people's petty problems (haha alliteration). Charlotte is sarcastic and intelligent, which makes her sharp tongue and impressive powers a force to be reckoned with. She doesn't have many friends (oh who am I kidding, she has no friends) and sort of thinks that she's superior over them. Her tough and focused mindset comes from her determination to win and her over competitiveness. Charlotte is not afraid to knock down a friend to get t I her goal, so that's why people tend to shy away from her. They think that she's intimidating, full of herself and overly competitive. Charlotte's not bothered by the lack of friends she has. "They will only get in my way", she says. She's largely independent, and feels that it is absolutely humiliating to ask someone for help.

_Kole Anderson_

Aloof and distant, Kole doesn't like to chat with people, and keeps to himself, he's like a loner. Arrogant, if he is to talk to someone, its mostly about how he's more awesome, and how they need him there. Rebellious, he doesn't take no crap from no one, and skips classes when he likes. Observant, he likes to observe more than fraternize. Fearless, he doesn't care if its something people say is impossible, he'll do it. Sarcastic, he likes to be a smart-butt a lot. Quiet, he likes to listen. Trusting, even though he may not have a great personality, he will stay by your side no matter what. He won't tell anyone your secrets. Wise, well, people like to go to him for advice and stuff, even if he is a jerk sometimes, he gives out fairly good advice. Impatient, he hates to be left waiting forever. He can read people, like tell what they are like, and can tell if they are hiding something, like the saying, 'I can read you like a open book'.

_Dominique 'Dom' Rowan_

Thoughtful and intelligent but also quite laid back, Dominique usually welcomes other people with a wry smile. He easily gets along with others, but is also independent by nature; he may be on good terms with many people, but he doesn't give complete trust as easily and he only explains his actions to his closest friends or when he is forced to. Anyway, when he bonds with someone, he is a very good and loyal friend. As a consequence he can carry grudges for long and he may be very vengeful if he feels betrayed. He is headstrong: once he sets his mind to an objective it's not easy to make him change his mind. He is quite ironic and he likes joking, but he has a bit of a dark humour and he often ends up giving the shivers even to his friends with what he thinks to be casual comments. he is a peaceful spirit and is adverse to fighting, but he is more than willing to fight when he is required to.

* * *

3rd Years:

_Seychelle Wang_

She is a perfectionist, and has a quick temper. These two definitely don't go together as whenever something isn't perfect, she loses her temper and spends hours raging about it, or scolding parts of her body (hands, feet, etc.) even though she knows they only act under her brain's command. She loves animals and little children between the age of 7 and 12, but can't stand babies and toddlers. She loves literature and can spend hours reading and writing while listening to classical music. She hates the sight of cockroaches. She is determined, but also tough and stubborn; these traits formed due to her bad childhood. She tries not to cry, and prefers to keep her feelings inside her. She acts stoic on the outside, but on the inside, sometimes, it kills her but she would rather die than admit it.

_Lukas 'Luke' Madorie_

Lukas is a gentle kind of guy. He loves the world around him more than himself. He likes to take care of people, and be a father figure to people younger than him. Lukas is a guy who will start up a conversation, and talk for hours if thats what your comfortable with. He may seem like a quiet person from his appearance, but he is far from it. He's a very calm guy, and very sensotive. To the bad side of his personality, he can get very jealous when he sees his friends being more happy with someone else, and can be very selfish at times. He's very unwilling to do things he doesn't like, and will argue hours on end if they continue to drag it on. Its best to leave him along when he's angry, unless you want to be knocked out or beaten up emotionally. If you lose his trust, you may never get it back either.

* * *

Thanks so much for submitting, everyone :) I'm about 1000 words into the first chapter, so I'll work hard to deliver it soon~ Anyway, keep submitting if you want.

EDIT: 3000 plus words into the first chapter yay~! Anyway, antagonist applications are still open, keep sending them through.


	4. 1: What's Your Poison?

**1: What's Your Poison?**

The air was still, cool and moist. Distantly, Marlena could hear the dull roar of the stampede in the quadrangle, such overt socialisation which she had thankfully escaped by being a day early and actually running to find the most secluded spot on the campus that her hand-eye coordination was capable of navigating; the pale pink render of the wall was cool and rough under the fingertips of her left hand. Maybe steering herself around by closing her eyes and following the wall with one hand wasn't the best thing for a chronically uncoordinated klutz, but it beat flapping her hands around and trying to make conversation like a sinus congested axolotl with chronic muscle spasms. People would stare at her and tell her to repeat words that she'd said _perfectly_ clearly, and she'd stare at them and blurt something totally unrelated and dash away, spazzing about whether they actually liked her and cursing at her weirdness-

Marlena crashed face first into a glass wall, flying back a foot or so and landing heavily on her bottom. Her eyes flew open, and she blinked rapidly for a few seconds to clear her vision of the tiny courtyard. Then the nova of pain that was her unfortunately flattened nose hit her square in the face, and she bent over, tucking her head between her knees as she cradled it tenderly.

"Ow," she whimpered. Well, she thought, she'd smacked herself in the face with a wall and landed painfully on her bottom; she was allowed to wallow in self-pity for a while, right? After the worst of the throbbing had subsided, she gingerly picked herself up with care for her smarting palms, dusting off her jeans and shaking the rest of the pain off with a bobble of the bun piled onto the top of her head.

The courtyard was shady and cool; a big tree, branching low from a thick trunk, split into limbs that extended in a canopy over the building side of the quadrangle. She made a quick mental note to The other sides were bounded by a huge, L-shaped greenhouse, at least three stories high and framed with gleaming silver ribs that flowed naturally from the ground up, arching into a pointed roof. The panes of glass framed by the silvery rib structure were organic in form and gleamed faintly iridescent in the early afternoon sun; they looked like plant cells, translucent.

_Virdana Memorial Greenhouse_.

One of the double doors shifted slightly in the breeze, flapping in welcome. It looked so cool and inviting and _empty, _where she wouldn't have to worry about impressions and people and being liked for a bit, with the side bonus of being able to clear her head; Marlena trotted forward and stopped the door mid-flap with one hand. Holding her breath slightly, she crossed the threshold as the air rippled slightly around her. As she passed through the barrier with a soft, audible pop, a wave of steamy fragrance engulfed her. The heavy musk of blooms in their fullness blended with cool, fresh notes from the water blossoms and mosses of the progression of trail of shallow waterfalls leading into the small pond to the right of the path; growing straight from the ground on her left was a stand of bamboo that brushed the ceiling with slender, elegant leaves.

Her flats scuffed softly on the brick path as lush greenery engulfed the space and crowded closely around her. She nearly walked into a spiral staircase that had been grown over by ivy and mosses, half-concealed behind the pots of tropical greenery and the tiered shelf jostling with seedlings and freshly planted cuttings; the wet, steaming air was set off slightly by the coolness of the leaves of the decorative ginger that trailed against her skin, hanging from decorative baskets from the balcony of the second floor. Plants that she recognised from her herbology and potionology textbooks waved slowly under the fanning of an aether breeze that shimmered slightly as it emitted from a shiny white hover module stationed above the table.

Marlena made sure not to touch any of the ivy on the stairs to the second level- bad experiences, terrible rashes and an aversion for life- emerging into a riot of colours and scents from the luxuriant beds of flowers curving up and away from the glass floor, like a half-pipe in a skate park. A sneeze interrupted the sense of tranquility she'd allowed herself to sink into, making her nose ache and her face smart. Feeling another sneeze coming on, she rushed blindly up another spiral staircase to the top level.

The top floor was the brightest, with sunlight streaming through the glass and refracting through the curving surfaces to wash everything with pale rainbows. By far the most exotic, the top floor was a maze of strange plants and things that didn't look like plants but probably were- she only took it as confirmation when a bulbous tuber split into quarters lined with needle-sharp teeth and tried to take a bite out of the hem of her sweater. She nearly tripped over a low pot filled with fat albino cacti, only avoiding it by grabbing onto a stand that held up a tank of energetic plasma that sloshed with anemones. As she delved deeper into the greenery, she shrank further into her sweater, assiduously avoiding touching anything she couldn't recognise. Distantly, the mind-Marlena that cared about what people thought waved her tiny fist and yelled at the rest of her brain, admonishing her for the slack-jawed expression she no doubt sported. Curious-Marlena dismissed the dissenter and rounded a cluster of pots planted climbing frames and climbers that sported a fluorescent frill at the lip of their seed pods.

Then, there it was.

It was- Well, she didn't know what she was, but she wanted to know; there were a cluster of three of them, gleaming a deep, velvet red in the rainbow-wash of light, atop spring-green stems and round, serrated leaves. The flowers sported petals that curled in toward arching stamens, surrounded by an outer layer of velvety petals the curled at the pointed tips and shimmered with iridescent lime green veins. She glanced around furtively before impulsively stepping forward and leaning over for a closer look.

"_Don't_ move." A sudden statement in a deep, smooth voice broke the silence. She nearly gasped, but the voice beat her to it. "Don't breathe, don't stand up straight, don't slouch, don't roll your eyes, and do not open your mouth to ask me what I am doing or so help you-" A black-gloved, spindly hand closed around the stem of the exotic flower, and a pair of secateurs delicately clipped the green stalk and withdrew it from under her nose.

Marlena didn't dare move, holding her breath and bent over the flowerpot in a 45 degree bow like an idiot until a hand grabbed the back of her sweater and hauled her away. It was one of the gloved hands, attached to a black-sleeved arm on a long, slender torso attached to a slim, pale neck- Crap.

The spectre in black, a senior girl by the looks of it, was glowering at her with eyes that positively _burned_ with dislike. Inner-Marlena crossed her arms in sync with the taller girl and shouted an 'I told you so' without actually knowing what she'd told Actual- Marlena before. The senior's deathly eyes narrowed even further, obscured by a fan of mascara lashes and gel-eyeliner, half-hidden by two-toned black-and-blonde hair. As Marlena blinked stupidly, flapping her mouth for words that wouldn't come out, the stranger's mouth pressed into a line and their eyebrows drew down.

That was the last straw. Panicking, Marlena blurted, "Ididn'twanttosocialiselikeanawkwar daxolotlsoIjustcamehereI'mactuallyareallyoutgoingpers onexcept-"

The scary senior held up a hand for silence, and her mouth slammed shut with an audible click of teeth. Her other hand delved into the folds of her heavy black skirt and produced a much-abused black notebook, wherein she scribbled with the pen taken from above her left ear.

"Psychotic tendencies, inability to mind filter, suicidal attraction to _deadly_, poisonous plants-" the strange girl turned around abruptly, disappearing into the potted plants behind the table that held the two remaining poisonous flowers. Marlena jumped from her seat, tripping slightly on air before wind-milling her arms to regain balance and dashing after the senior.

"Wait!" A sudden hand in Marlena's face, smacking hard against her forehead and bringing her to a screeching halt.

"Three decibels louder and your frequencies would have killed three different species of succulent," the stranger muttered, still buried in her notebook. "It would have taken around two hundred and seven more to be lethal to you, but that would have broken the greenhouse and I need my black glories for ghost toxicant."

"Um..."

The lethal gaze of the senior turned back onto her, and she flapped her hands a bit. Lip curling, the older girl flicked her forehead and turned away. Marlena opened her mouth again, blinking. Before she could let out another breath, she was flat on her back on the glass floor with a flaming cheek and a completely flabbergasted mind-blank as the senior loomed over her, hands propped on bony hips.

"Get out," the other girl said coolly, staring down with a flat expression. Marlena blinked again, and the stranger disappeared. Still shell-shocked, she sat up, mechanically dusted herself off, and fled the greenhouse. Once she had safely made her way out, down the ivy stairs and past the pond, she juddered to a halt in the middle of the courtyard. Slowly, she checked off her fingers. One, ran into a wall with her eyes closed. Two, nearly inhaled a poisonous flower. Three, got smacked in the face by a creepy senior. Four, didn't get said senior's name. With each point, she felt her shoulders tensing more and more and the muscles in her arms getting tight. Mind-Marlena ran around, rampaging and breathing fire and screaming things that would have gotten her suspended-

Marlena yelled wordlessly at the sky, startling a flock of birds into flight, before running out of the courtyard and away.

* * *

Seychelle leaned backward, slouching down in her seat and throwing one leg over the other. Breathing deeply of the clean smell of the open air stadium, she closed her eyes and laced her fingers together behind her head. This was the _life_, she thought; the sun had warmed the air just enough for it to be comfortable under the sweep of the great shade sails bordering the circular stadium. She was clean and freshly showered, with her thick dark hair dampening the spots where it rested on her black shirt slightly. The burn in her arms and legs had faded to a pleasant tenderised feeling that attested to how hard she'd trained before, running a hard three laps around the boundary wall at half-speed and then spending a solid hour and a half doing drills and sparring, with intermittent flexibility exercises that had her sore all over.

The work she'd put in all summer had her in the best shape that she'd ever been. It had been a good choice on her part to stay on campus for the holidays. Never mind the fact that no-one had been there- that was a good thing, actually. She had her whole dorm to herself, with enough room to set out all her projects and no interruptions to her sleep (her neighbour had a single room and a surgically enhanced chest and fully took advantage of the fact), aside from Rinzen, who didn't talk much and was always off doing her own stuff anyway. She had room to move, breathe and get her head screwed on straight- especially since she had to prepare extra-hard for third year.

It was something that Seychelle wanted to push out of her mind, but it was really unavoidable. Third year was senior school, and the ante would be upped, a lot. Academics and physical training was only going to get harder. That wasn't even counting the great likelihood that the Red Fountain boys would round off the last of their growth spurts. Seychelle had been dreading it since freshman year- she was female, so she'd matured earlier and coasted through the combat element of her schooling for the past two years. What she was afraid of was that she'd start to lag behind as the rest of the boys reached peak physical condition during senior school while she struggled to maintain her top form against them.

She took a deep, calming breath and focused on tapping one finger rhythmically against her knuckles, lulling herself into a mindless, hazy state. Slowly, she fell into a meditative state, ignoring the far off scuffling of some freshie boys and listening to the hum of insects in the summery heat. Seychelle had nearly fallen asleep when an eruption of sound from the arena broke her trance sharply. Cursing, she shot upright, before plopping back down heavily with an irritated exhalation and a tired rub of her eyes.

Trotting down to the balcony that overlooked the sand floored arena, Seychelle cursed again. A bunch of sophomores were roughhousing in the middle of the stadium floor- where they shouldn't be playing, she thought- and a pack of them, about twelve or thirteen plus some freshmen who had no doubt been influenced by some of the bad eggs of the second year, had gathered, pressed up against the balcony, to watch the spectacle. She was just going to yell them all into submission, but stopped before the started. The play-fighting wasn't play-fighting but a bunch of the bigger, boneheaded second years had gathered around a struggling figure held fast by a big blonde. The blonde pushed the thinner boy to the floor, and he landed face first in the sand. Seychelle didn't catch any more, marching off to the stairs that led out onto ground level, swiping her access card to the senior armoury and grabbing a practice katana (it would have to do, her own live blade was in her locker and she would've gotten suspended had she used it to deal with a couple of bullies). Pressing her mouth into a hard line, she took the armoury way out into the glaring sunlight of the arena.

The gang of sophomores had moved on to shoving the thinner boy from one to another as he staggered about, trying to regain his equilibrium. Accidentally-on-purpose, one of the bullies stuck his fist out with more force than was necessary, catching the victim in the cheek and nose. Gasping, he dragged his hand across his face, smearing it with gritty redness.

"Hey!" she yelled sharply, her expression militant and her stride authoritative. The blonde and his pack of friends looked up, looking her up and down and sizing her up. They were evidently unimpressed with what they saw: a slender woman in dark, loose clothes that masked her musculature more than anything. Still Seychelle's eyebrows furrowed together and she narrowed her eyes, imitating the best Rinzen-glare that she could manage.

"What are you doing?" she barked, coming to a halt about five feet or so away, planting her feet apart and crossing her arms.

"Who says it's any of your business?" the big blonde boy mocked, crossing his arms as his friends giggled.

"I do," she shot back, tone flat. She tossed her head at the slender boy they'd been shoving around. "Hey, you. You with these guys?"

The boy she'd called at shot her an evil look, cradling his nose and shaking his head to get his dakr hair out of his equally dark eyes. She scoffed and turned back to the blonde.

"Seems to me that he's not down with..." she paused heavily for effect, before indicating the group of bullies broadly with one hand. "...this."

They all burst out laughing, but she could pick out an undercurrent of something nasty beneath the sniggering.

"Who says?" one of them challenged, leering.

"Tch," she sneered before she could stop herself. Three inches of blade slid out of her sheath, and Seychelle said, "I do." Turning to face the crowd gathering around the arena, she yelled, "Hey! You! Clear off before you regret it!"

They all laughed, and she gritted her teeth.

"- like that, don't you Kole, some Alfea fairy playing pretend like she's some bad-ass-" the blonde joked, gesturing crudely in the air. Her fists clenched, and her stance changed subtly. The freshmen in the galleries, still held tight by survival instincts that enabled them to detect the barest _hint_ of danger, froze up and started to back away. Soon, a slow hush descended as the ringleader continued to jeer loudly. Even his goons fell silent at the flaming dark aura of menace emanating from Seychelle's rangy frame. Only then did some of the elements of the goon squad begin to notice the impressive tone of her arm muscles and the fact that she was well on six feet tall. They slowly stopped doing unflattering impressions.

She cleared her throat. The ringleader laughed raucously, obviously too absorbed in the sound of his own voice to notice that everyone had gone silent. Seychelle kind of hoped that the kid they'd been pushing around would scramble, but he'd gone all stiff and quiet and that didn't look good for anyone.

"Who do you think you are?" he jeered, a painfully self-satisfied expression on his face.

Seychelle sneered back. "Seychelle Zhao, third year. You want me to prove it?"

She didn't wait for an answer for long, since they all rushed at her in a big group, dropping their plaything and diving at her with outstretched hands. She neatly sidestepped and twirled, elbowing one of the taller boys hard in the kidney and simply sliding out of their reach. When they started to rush her from more than one direction, she cracked the big blonde a good one on the nose, sending blood flying into the sand and the others back for a second. With a 'tch' she slid the katana fully into its sheath and jabbed one of the boys in the solar plexus, another in the crotch, and threw one over her hip with a smooth, practiced twist of her body. A spinning kick, aimed high, slammed hard into one sophomore's jaw; a well placed nap tap made another's eyes roll back in his head as he folded like rice paper.

A sudden, blinding pain from her scalp yanked her backwards and into realising that her long hair was loose and a liability in a fight. Cursing, she slammed her elbow backward and clawed at the hand fisted in her hair as big hands pinned her arms behind her back. Thinking past, she leaned back onto the person holding her arms, springing up off the ground and kicking out with both feet at the boy coming at her head-on. He staggered back, bawling like a sissy as the boy holding her back staggered and lost his balance with the force of her kick.

Suddenly, a whirlwind of fists and feet erupted in her field of vision, leaping onto the back of the blonde leader and pummelling them. Seychelle blinked, assessing the loner's technique. Kole's form was great, but his muscle tone... well, there was a reason his pummelling wasn't doing much. She backhanded one of the ringleader's goons in the nose when he tried to sneak up on her and finally got tired of playing nice.

They dropped like flies once she nap-tapped them, and when a hand grabbed her elbow, she nearly cracked Rinzen across the face too, had the other girl not 'jumped' out of the way. Rolling her heavily lined eyes, Rinzen crossed her arms before grabbing both Seychelle and the boy she'd jumped in to oh-so-helpfully save and jumping back to the senior armoury half-way across campus.

Being pulled through a rip in time and space was not the most comfortable thing ever. Before the black spheres bubbling in her vision had a chance to clear, a fist collided with her face, knocking her back.

She staggered, for a moment, hissing, "_Shit_, Rinzen!"

Rinzen scoffed and crossed her arms, looking almost longingly at the greenhouse. "Not me."

"Hey!" Kole finally barked at her, feet planted apart and arms stiff away from his sides.

"What?" Seychelle snapped back, beyond pissed off. "I get them off your back and the thanks I get is a bitch-slap across the face?"

"I _had _that!" he yelled, dark eyes blazing and narrowed into something resembling the Rinzen squint of death. Clearly tired of being around such loud, aggressive people, Rinzen popped away and reappeared on the third floor of the greenhouse, returning to sedately tending to her black glories.

Seychelle let out a bark of laughter. "Oh, God, that's funny! Your form was _great_, but your force? Ha!"

Kole trembled with barely contained rage. "Don't."

She should've taken it as a warning sign but she was mad, so she kept talking. "Geez, you so didn't have that and I only helped you because you were interrupting my nap-"

"_Don't_."

"-but really. Get some better friends, kid," she sneered. "Ones that don't think using you as a human punching bag is great entertainment."

"I didn't _ask_ for you to help me!" he yelled furiously. "I had it! I didn't need you to come blazing in and smashing around with that stick-"

Blindingly fast, she unsheathed the katana and leveled it at the boy's throat. "Shut. Up."

He stopped with an audible click of teeth.

Sighing, Seychelle sheathed her katana and ruffled her hair with one hand. Turning and walking away, she yelled back, "Once you're over your bitch-fit, you know who to find if you want to learn how to handle them _properly_."

Cursing, she headed off to her locker. What a way to end the holidays.

* * *

**A/N: AYOOO WASSUP. So this is chapter one, featuring Mars Yancey, Seychelle Zhao and Kole Anderson, plus creepy lurking Rinzen. This chapter really has got very little to do with anything, I just wanted to give you guys something to read. NExt chapter will probably feature the rest of the main cast and the first day of school, I think. Protagonist applications are closed but antagonist apps are still open so keep sending stuff in :) **


	5. 2: Babycino

**2: Babycino**

"A-ah... Hey, _watch it_, that stings!" Kole smacked Dom's hand away and Dom rolled his eyes, propping one hand on his hip and holding the cotton ball saturated with rubbing alcohol between the forefinger and thumb of the other. Kole fumed and scrunched his nose up, wincing as a bead of red liquid reappeared from his nostril.

"Are you quite done yet?" Kole scowled but flinched as Dom tilted his chin up roughly with one hand, dabbing at his split lip mercilessly. Sullenly, he let the redhead clean up his face, apply some balm to the bruising on his cheekbone and bandage his knuckles before they had to run down to registrations and the opening assembly. Kole slumped backward on his bed once Dom dusted his hands off and dropped the used cotton balls in the bin, grabbing the bottle of rubbing alcohol and taking it back to the tiny bathroom they shared. He and Dom had nothing to do with the other boys sharing their suite; they'd scrimped, saved- begged, borrowed and stolen (well, Dom was the one doing the begging, Kole didn't beg)- to furnish their little dorm as well as they could. The biggest TV they could afford, surrounded by Kole's game system, sat opposite to their two-seater sofa. Bordering on the bedside table with their alarm clock and their holographic phoenix's perch was their very basic model bunk bed. A tiny square table with fold-down wings was pushed into the corner beside two stackable chairs.

It wasn't much, but it beat sleeping on the floor in sleeping bags and studying at a horizontal on carpet that made it difficult to write without poking holes through their exercise sheets. Which they'd been forced to do for a while, given that their furniture had mysteriously disappeared three weeks into freshman year. Most of their stuff had been able to be recovered, but the culprits were never really caught and Kole lived in eternal fear of losing his gaming setup.

Dom wandered out of the dorm, hands in his pockets. Kole was a big boy. He could take care of himself as long as he stayed tucked up in their dorm room; as much as he ran his mouth about being incredibly awesome and walking out on class with a bitchface that screamed delinquency, the boy was a walking target and it worried him sometimes. He'd done enough first aid on the loner to be practically a qualified medical professional, everything from bruises and scrapes to setting his broken nose in the second semester of last year and suturing a particularly nasty gash that Kole didn't feel like explaining to the school nurses.

Unconsciously, his body took him to the dragon stables, carrying him up to the nesting loft and to the furthest stable from the door. Trilling softly, he crouched down and peered through the protective grille, folding his hands loosely around two of the solid metal bars. A shuffling inside the stable preceded a warm, bony muzzle nudging his fingers.

Dom smiled. "Hiya, Qirin."

Qirin trilled, blinking up at him with big, black eyes. Her amber scales flashed like fire under the yellow light of the heat lamp, and he felt his lips quirk. Qirin was growing fast, having moved up from the size of a Dobermann to a Great Dane. She was flapped her wings and snorted, and Dom pulled his hands back quickly to void being scorched by the tiny fireball that spurted out of Qirin's nostrils.

"Haha, Qir, that's enough," he chided gently, stroking the baby dragon's slender muzzle with one finger. Closing his eyes, he focused on slowly opening a connection with the baby dragon. When he opened his eyes again, the colours in his vision had completely changed; it was a side effect of the temporary bond he had with the dragon. A second layer of thoughts and feelings overlapped over his own, and Qirin trilled softly, radiating pulses of contentment with the feeling of sharing. Dom gathered up the scattered traces of emotion and fed them back through the connection, nudging Qirin into reciprocating and feeding back impressions and feelings. He chuckled when the dragon sneezed, feeling the tickle himself, and traced the currents of heat that Qirin saw in the air. The baby dragon chirped and a flash of recognition fed through the connection. Someone approached him from behind, dusting their gloved hands on a rag tucked into their belt.

Lukas peeled off his heavy dragon hide gloves and ran a hand through his sweat-matted hair. Shoving them in his back pocket, he sauntered on his final errand before running down for a shower- checking on Qirin and making sure that the baby dragon was faring okay- but stopped once he realised someone else was already there.

_Weird_. He'd never seen anyoene else interacting with Qirin up to this point. She was some sophomore's, but the boy never took care of her and preferred racing about on her sire and then leaving him to the care of the stable hands and suckers like him. Actually, Qirin had remained nameless until one day there was a placard on her stable door that read _qirin _in really messy Valkyrian script. He'd even chanced waking the sleeping dragon that was Seychelle Zhao to figure out what it said. So he started calling the baby dragon that and it responded, so it stuck. In the end, henever really got the charred smell out of his hair, no matter how much fruity shampoo he used.

The boy sticking his fingers through the grille and petting Qirin looked up and blinked at him with yellow, slitted eyes. Lukas blinked at him, and Qirin chirruped. The other boy hurriedly moved to stand, but Lukas crouched beside him and and clicked his tongue at the dragon. They sat in silence, only broken by Qirin's chittering, for a while.

Lukas spoke first. "Qirin says you've been coming here for a while."

The redhead nodded perfunctorily, tucking a lock of hair behind his ear when it fell into his eye.

"You two talk," Lukas continued, matter-of-factly, as the boy continued to stroke the baby dragon's muzzle.

"You say that like I'm perfectly sane," the other boy said, a hint of a smile in his voice.

"Completely so." Lukas grinned when Qirin blew a plume of fire in the air. Dom flinched slightly, but smiled sincerely. "Qirin says that everyone else is crazy and we're the normal ones."

The other boy laughed at that. "She would, though- she's a cheeky little blighter, isn't she?"

Lukas snorted, but stuck out his hand for a shake. "Lukas Madorie. People call me a dragon whisperer but that sounds like a bunch of rubbish."

"Dominique Rowan," he said, tickling Qirin one last time on the nose before turning around and accepting the proffered hand. "Animal empath."

Dom got to his feet, dusting off his pants and offering Lukas a hand. "Come on. Registration opens soon and no offense, but you kind of need to get cleaned up."

Lukas ruffled his blonde ponytail and winced when a sulfuric smell emanated from it in waves. "Yeah."

As they left, a jet of blue flame erupted around the metal bars of Qirin's stable, accompanied by a shrill series of clicks and trills. The baby dragon was clearly unhaoppy at being left alone again.

"I'll be back, Qir!" they both yelled at the same time. They blinked at each other and burst out laughing.

* * *

"I miss you already, Chi."

For some reason or other, Charlotte felt as if she were listening in on something unbearably intimate. Well, it wasn't like she could turn her sonic hearing on and off; it as there all the time and wasn't something she could control. Briefly, she thought about going and closing the balcony door, but the breeze was nice and she was too comfortable lounging on her bed to be bothered to get up. So Charlotte kept listening to the conversation, with no idea who or what she was actually hearing.

A sigh from the other end of the line. "_It's only been two weeks, Aurea_."

"I know... I still miss you, though."

"_...And I you._"

"You're so... augh, Chi. Would it kill you to be nice sometimes?"

"_Hey, we are talking about me, right?_"

"Yeah, well... Hey, I've been working on a new project with the red and amber crystal glass you sent me from Giada- I flamed and blended it and now I'm just working on moulding it into shape. It's really pretty. Thanks for the glass, Chiaro."

"_Don't worry about it._"

A heavy, awkward silence settled, and Charlotte half-thought that maybe the phone call had ended. The light breeze ghosted over her bare legs, and her fingers scratched against the cool cotton of her comfortably worn bed sheets. Cicadas shrilled outside, skittering in the grass and trees. Distantly, she recalled that the singing of cicadas could surpass the volume of a pneumatic drill, but she never gave that much credence because she didn't sing much and she didn't want to learn from insects of all things.

"...Hey?"

"_I'm still here._"

"Chiaro, _resta sempre con me, _okay?"

"_Yes, I told you I was still here, right?_"

"Just..."

"_I'll see you later, Aurry_."

"Bye, Chi. Ti amo."

"_Ti amo. Bye._"

She rolled and fell off the bed, falling with a soft thud and nudging her guitar stand. Charlotte scrambled to her feet, stumbling to her as-of-yet unpacked suitcases to root for a pair of shorts and a hooded tank top. Once she finished changing into something presentable without fear of being peeped on by an errant suite-mate (being a loner and having a single room sure had perks), she grabbed her phone and music player, sauntering into the hallway with her flip-flops slapping against the carpet. She let herself out and locked her room's door but not the door to the corridor, since her suite-mates probably didn't bother to take their keys with them and would throw a hissy fit if they got locked out. The whole wing seemed dead and empty. Of course. With a _tch,_ she shook her head at the vapid socialites who populated this wing of the dorm. All probably giggling and tittering with their air-brain friends down in the quad, clogging up the registration tables and picking their targets from the new intake freshies.

She had gotten a couple of yards down the hall with her hood up and her hands in her pockets when two girls from her year group passed her by, talking softly.

"You think we should leave Primavere in the suite?" one asked. The other, a blonde, tossed her head and smirked, looping her arm through her friend's.

"Well, it would be such a shame to land in detention on your first day for missing something as _vital _ as registration..." she trailed off thoughtfully. Charlotte gritted her teeth and waited for them to turn down the stairwell before padding back down to the suite neighbouring hers and rapping sharply on the door. It was a couple of seconds before the door opened, revealing a chocolate-skinned girl combing back bright blond hair with her fingers. The azure tassels on her airy white batwing top dangled and bobbed merrily as a genuine smile broke across the girl's face.

Charlotte was stumped.

"Hi!" she greeted, with a delicate little wave, more a flutter of the fingers than anything, that made her thin gold bangles tinkle against one another. "Were you looking for someone."

"Uh," Charlotte said flatly. The girl blinked at her. She got her mouth to work. "No, not really. Just someone named, what, Primavere?"

"That's me..." she said, cocking her head to one side. "Did someone send you?"

Charlotte shook her head, pushing her hands back into her pockets. "Nah. Just heard a couple of girls passed by saying they weren't gonna get you to come out for registration, so I thought I might as well get you."

"Oh!" The girl Primavere was Aurea who was on the phone with Chiaro from the balcony episode, she thought. Aurea Primavere, then. "Thanks. I probably would've been late. Hey, let's go down together!"

Char nodded dumbly as Aurea took her by the arm, skipping out of the suite. "Thanks heaps, again. Who are you, again? Do you live next door? Oh, god, I'm sorry I don't know your name."

Aurea giggled slightly, her blonde head bobbing. Charlotte shrugged noncommittally. "S'okay. I don't get out much. Charlotte Yukihoru."

"You don't get out much? Why?" She blinked and leaned away slightly from the bubbly girl, who leaned away in turn, her large amber eyes round.

"Don't like people," Charlotte said bluntly. Aurea blinked at her and laughed nervously, staring pointedly at their entwined arms. "No, no, no, I don't mean- No, I mean I don't like people in general, I didn't mean I don't like you!"

Aurea smiled winningly. "So you like me, then? Let's be friends."

"Hey, back up," Charlotte said, waving her hands hurriedly, but Aurea steamrollered on, pulling her in her wake and bursting out into the main quad. Groups of girls milled around the year group registration tables, chatting loudly with their friends and squealing at frequencies that made Charlotte uncomfortable. She could pick the first years by the way they had their luggage piled protectively around them, like portable miniature fortresses. The seniors generally had the most revealing clothes, save for a couple of oddities like Seychelle and Rinzen, who were just famous because they didn't wear anything but black and kicked people to the floor on a regular basis. That and that they were scholarship kids.

Charlotte rolled her eyes helplessly as Aurea continued to pull her along. However, she couldn't help hearing the hushed giggling and whispering that followed in their wake, probably about Aurea. Even though they were quiet, Char just had sharper hearing than most, and the comments included everything from her causing her parents' separation to her having a psychopathic burakon on someone. She half expected herself to magically know what a burakon was, but just 'cause she looked like she should know the pop culture didn't mean she did. She shook her head, banishing the whispers form her head. No basis in proof, so she couldn't assume like everyone else did about her. Then she'd just be a hypocrite. Aurea bounded past the central fountain, skidding up to a halt at the second-year registration table, firing off her details as Charlotte toed the edge where the paving met the manicured lawn. Aurea could get dangerously close, she thought, to getting close to her. She was here to focus on her studies, to encourage her talents. She meant to do that, and friends weren't supposed to get in her way.

"Char? Can I call you that, Char? It sounds cool, right?" Aurea flashed her another wide, earnest smile. Charlotte felt her lips twitch instinctively in response. Pulling back her hood, she stepped up to the registration table.

* * *

**A/N:** **Hola :) So this is chapter two, featuring a cameo of Kole, Dominique Rowan, Lukas Madorie, Charlotte Yukihoru, Aurea Primavere and Qirin the dragon. So we still have Chiaro Svernare, Ellie Marsh, Claire Knightly, Heath Elron and a mystery boy to go. I'm sorry everyone whose characters haven't appeared yet~ I just wanted to make sure the introductions were done porpoerly and I wrote whoever felt right at the time. So DW, I love them all equally, there's no preferential order to anything. Shoutouts to everyone who's submitted an antagonist; they'll probably come through in the next couple of chapters.  
**


	6. 3: Pink Lemonade

**3: Pink Lemonade**

There was only one person as obnoxiously loud as that, and it could only be Xander Everest.

Chiaro rolled his eyes and slid his phone back into his pocket. With a clattering and a barrage of raised voices, the auditorium door opened and a posse of jocks bustled through, elbowing a couple of skinny freshies out of the way. At the head of the pack was the biggest, blondest jock yet, in a bunch of them, the ever-recognisable pack of goons that was Xander Everest's (especially since the better-looking aristocrats, the ones with better bone structure and higher IQs, kept to themselves).

Really, Chiaro just didn't want to deal with this kind of stuff this early in the day, if ever. It was bad enough that they shared a suite: not a dorm, thank gods; he was a light sleeper and sometimes Xander still kept him up with his 'nightly activities' regardless. And now Xander was being as obnoxiously loud as ever, bragging about beating up on some first or second year. Chiaro had the eerie sense of being in the line of fire, and glanced quickly to his right. It seemed his suspicions were correct, as a girl slouched in a seat a couple of chairs away from him aimed a laser-eyed glare at the blonde. He frankly wasn't surprised. Xander was talented at one thing and that was pissing off people in their sane minds wherever he went. The doors slammed open again, and a tall, slim figure sashayed through, sporting a designer bag, shiny gold-framed aviators and an impeccable coiffure.

Scratch that, there was another person who could be louder- Hayana Koizumi.

"_Seychelle~!_" Haya called, surveying the half-empty auditorium, tipping his aviators down and flicking his deep plum hair out of his eyes with a toss of the head. His sharply lined, catlike eyes picked out the figure burrowing into their chair almost immediately, and he traipsed over in his designer high-tops, bouncing over three rows of chairs to plop down beside the girl that had been death-glaring Xander into oblivion. Grinning much too brightly for his bleary morning mind to comprehend, the other boy slung his arm around Seychelle and crossed his legs.

"Ugh, Haya," Seychelle complained, leaning away from the older boy. "What are you even doing around here, Haya? You graduated last year, now act like you did, okay?"

"Aw, can't I come see my didi for kicks and giggles?"

"Yeah, if you want to get kicked in your man-bits." Hayana laughed, taking his sunglasses off and hooking them in the neckline of his top. Seychelle pushed Haya off her onto his own seat.

"Can't you just do this stuff to other people? Don't you have a dance class or something to be at?" Seychelle complained. Unfortunately, Haya was no longer listening and had instead recognised someone in Chiaro's vicinity. Chiaro looked around. Wait. No-one but him.

_Well, crap_.

"Chi-chi didi!" Haya yelled across to him, "Hel_lo_!"

Chiaro slid across one seat and pretended not to hear him. Regardless, Haya shuffled over, shedding both bag and black-and-white cardigan to encroach painfully on Chiaro's personal space bubble. Before he knew what was happening, Haya's perfectly manicured hands had started pinching his cheeks into unnatural contortions and Seychelle threw her hands into the air, stomping over and pulling the overly affectionate graduate off Chiaro.

"Damn it, Haya, you didn't even come to school at Red Fountain! The hell you doing, bothering innocent freshies like that?"

Haya smirked. "Don't you two know each other at least enough to recognise you're in the same year?"

Seychelle thought for a moment. "Uh, nope. And he's short."

Chiaro sniffed. "Please. She knows who I am."

"Oh, well then," Haya said, a sly look creeping onto his face. "You won't mind me doing this, then."

He promptly draped both arms over them and dropped into a seat between the two of them. Chiaro and Seychelle both wiggled, but Haya's grip was unrelenting, despite the slenderness of his arms and him in general. Seychelle looked helplessly at Chiaro and shrugged. He rolled his eyes. The weren't the best of friends, but they knew each other out of necessity. This was just an unexpected development.

Things got rowdier when Lukas arrived, trailing two sophomores on either side of him. He slumped down on Seychelle's side and didn't even bat an eyelash at Haya's flirtatious lick of the teeth and twirl of his long ponytail.

"Ew, Lulu," the girl complained, holding her nose. "You still smell like burnt leather and sulfur, you know. And on top of that, you used your suite-mate's girlfriend's shampoo, didn't you."

"I don't know how many times I told you, Sey," Lukas said, closing his eyes and sliding down in his seat, "I only use it to try and mask the charred smell. Not like Haya here."

The two sophomores were making to sit down when Seychelle suddenly took notice of the dark haired one, pointing at him as he recognised her with widened eyes.

"You!" the both barked, pointing at each other.

Chiaro had a feeling that nothing would end well.

"You! H-hey!" the sophomore yelled, spluttering at Seychelle with an absolutely flabbergasted expression.

"Yah, you!" Seychelle shouted back, at a loss for words. The redheaded sophomore sighed the sigh of the heavily put-upon and grabbed his taller year-mate by the shoulders. Said year-mate was pushed around to the free seat beside Chiaro. The redhead sat down beside him and smiled across at Chiaro.

"Hi, I'm Dom and this is Kole," he introduced. Seychelle sniffed, affronted. Haya leaned over and ruffled Kole's hair with one hand. He instinctively leaned back and Kole flinched away, but Haya was inescapable. Chiaro made it a rule to never begin conversations precisely because of this.

The scuffling only stopped when the guests of honour filed in and they all stood out of habit. Once the headmaster Saladin had taken his seat on the auditorium stage, with Codatorta to his immediate right and a few completely unrecognisable, garishly-dressed people to his left, they sat in a rough approximation of unison. Seychelle leaned further away from Haya, and Lukas had to shuffle to make room for her. Chiaro gave the boy beside him a pointed look to get him to stop glaring across him- really, he could feel the tip of his nose singeing- but all that did was make Kole glare back. Dom shrugged and looked at him apologetically, as if saying _what can one do?_

The headmaster tapped his staff on the floor a few times for attention. Smiling benevolently, one hand rested on the lectern and the other retained its grip on his staff as he surveyed the students gathered in the hall.

"Well, it seems we have the start of a new year," the headmaster began. Subconsciously, everything around him slipped out of focus, and before Chiaro knew what he was doing, he rose to consciousness who-knows-how-long later. The headmaster still wasn't done, but Hayana had started to fidget, so it was a pretty good indication that nothing important had passed him by. Seychelle glanced at her watch three times in ten seconds and Kole kept glancing at the exits.

"However, we will have a slightly different experience this year, something that will affect all of you to an extent but a select few the most. As you all know, Red Fountain is as school that holds a great deal of fame and prestige, being the top-ranked hero school in the Magix dimension and the school of choice for future leaders, especially those of planets and realms." Saladin paused for emphasis. "You also all know that we deliver on this reputation and meet the expectations that the realms have of us, in producing exceptionally skilled heroes, upstanding citizens and well-rounded individuals. Collaboratively with Magix TV, it has come time that we share what exactly makes Red Fountain and Red Fountain life so special with the rest of the Magix Dimension."

Xander was going to like that. Anything that gave him greater exposure to a higher volume of women than he already encountered on a day-to-day basis was a great thing; Chiaro could only bury his face in his hands and hope that none of this made it so that he'd have to interact with more people than necessary. One of the shiny, brightly coloured people, a man in a shiny green suit, replaced Headmaster Saladin at the lectern, and flashed a blindingly white smile at the audience. Kole flinched slightly and Haya put his sunglasses back on, raising his eyebrow in a look that was undoubtedly judging.

"I might as well introduce myself because I and a lucky few of you will be getting _very_ close over the year," Shiny Suit started, clapping his hands together and rubbing them against one another. If it wasn't plain creepy then Haya wasn't a flamboyant, metrosexual dance machine. "I'm Budweiser Abbey and I'll be producing Magix TV's hottest new reality TV show, Charmed Life: Behind The Swords And Spells!"

Suddenly, the doors burst open and a white-haired boy ran into the auditorium, getting half-way down the central aisle before realising that everyone else was already seated and staring at him. Buddweiser Abbey turned his shiny-eyed scrutiny on the tardy student as he flinched and froze, and expression of _oh crap_ coming onto his face.

"That one. He is our first lucky star," Buddweiser announced, half-dazedly. Haya's smirk turned into a Cheshire grin.

Oh crap indeed.

* * *

Amanda's hand tightened comfortingly over her shoulder as Curtis set down her suitcases in her dorm room.

"Are you okay, Ellie? Are you comfortable? Are you sure you want to go ahead with this...?" her adoptive mother asked, worry in her kind brown eyes. Ellie nodded and made the universal sign for okay with her free hand as the other tightened on her notebook and pencil. The room was comfortably furnished, well enough in size for one girl and her things; she wasn't sharing with any higher grades so it was probably better that way. Still, Ellie had the sneaking feeling that her parents had fixed it this way, so she had space to herself. She had mixed feelings about that.

To say that she was a quiet kid would be a horrible understatement; loud environments made her uncomfortable to begin with and she had rushed to the dorms as quickly as possible after registration to avoid the judging stares of the other Alfea girls. She cringed just thinking about it. As much as she loved her adoptive parents, she didn't need to look like any more of an outcast that she already did. A kid's body and a kid's face had people asking her if she had the wrong school more than once and she had to scribble intensely in her notebook to demonstrate to them that she, in fact, had the right school. They'd even gone to the lengths of carrying her suitcases for her and filling out her registration forms as if she couldn't do it herself. As her parents herded her out of the dorm room like anxious chickens, fluffing up and settling every few minutes or so, she trotted to keep up with the flood of girls pouring out toward the main hall. She turned back and signed to her parents that she'd be fine on her own, but they cut her off.

"No, it's no trouble, we'll see you to the main hall, won't we, Curtis?" Amanda assured, waving her hands and shouldering her carry-all. Ellie winced and hunched her shoulders slightly as her parents swept through the centre of the hall with her in tow. She wanted to smile and wave, but then they'd think her even more demented that she already looked. Judging stares burned into her back as the girls around them tittered. Her face burned as her parents stepped protectively in front of her when a senior girl came to a halt before them with a polite smile.

"Hi, I'm sorry but I have to notify you that the dorms are off limits to prospective students on school days. They're available for inspection on open days, though," she said clearly and politely.

"Oh, I'm afraid you have us quite mistaken," Amanda said, a slightly hostile edge creeping into her tone. "Ellie is attending this year."

The older girl looked slightly startled, but nodded in acknowledgement. "If that's the case then I'll let you be on your way."

She sidestepped and gestured to say that she wasn't stopping them from going anywhere. Still, Ellie's mom narrowed her eyes and marched off smartly, grabbing Ellie's hand. She glanced back briefly, and closed her eyes when she saw the senior girl with a couple of her friends making the crazy gesture and mouthing '_psycho_'.

How _embarrassing_.

She scribbled quickly in her notebook once they reached the doors of the main hall.

_I'll be alright from here_, she wrote, showing it to her parents. She'd made enough of an impression already and she didn't want to be branded as any more different.

"Are you sure?" Ellie couldn't keep the lid on her eye roll and nodded quickly, before turning around and scampering off quickly with a backwards wave and ears burning with shame. She pushed the door open and took a seat as quickly as she could, beside a girl with dark corkscrew curls pinned back from her face with a beribboned pin. She sat alone. Ellie could relate- there were clusters of girls everywhere, even among the freshmen. Diplomats, all of them; they were brought up to get along with people and make good impressions so they had social success while she- what did she have? Ellie was just some kid that was a year young and didn't talk full stop. As she sat, the girl beside her shifted slightly, looking up from her book as if to gauge whether she meant any harm or offense. Ellie simply sat and crossed her legs on top of one another, leaning back in her seat and whistling a tuneless string of notes. This seemed to reassure the other.

"Hi," the girl beside her said quietly, smiling a small, gentle smile that made her sapphire eyes crinkle up. "I'm Claire."

Ellie waved at her before pulling out her notebook and scribbling a response. _I'm Ellie_. _Are you waiting for anyone?_

Claire shook her head. "No, it's just me."

_What year are you in?_

Claire giggled. "You don't talk much, do you?"

Ellie grinned and shrugged. _What can I say?_

"Haha, very punny," Claire laughed. "I'm in second year. You're in first year, am I right?"

_Yeah. Scholarship kid?_ Claire suddenly quieted, and her face lost its radiance. Ellie blinked. Did they not talk about this at Alfea? Was it some sort of taboo subject?

"...Yeah," Claire mumbled, her demeanour entirely subdued and markedly different from the warm, welcoming and friendly vibe she'd given off when Ellie had first sat down beside her. Ellie scratched out a couple of words and showed her notebook to Claire.

_Good. Me too_.

Claire gave her a dazzling smile, and Ellie decided it was worth the embarrassment to have met someone with such a sincere smile.

A few rows away in the left-most block of seats, Aurea bounced up and down in her seat, jostling Charlotte as she tried most unsuccessfully to maintain some sort of appearance of dignity. Granted, it wasn't much, especially since she's adopted a masculine sort of seat with her feet planted apart on the floor and her elbows resting on her thighs (one of the occupational hazards of being a cellist; sometimes one's sitting posture became more provocative than necessary).

"It's _so _exciting!" Aurea gushed. "Aren't you excited, Char? New year, new classes and classmates, lots of new activities to do and groups to join?"

Char flapped a hand lazily. "And get club managers all down my throat over useless stuff like attending meetings and being organised? Tch. No thanks."

With that, she turned her attention to the dirty rock blaring in one ear. Aurea giggled and flapped her hands at Char dismissively. Char rolled her eyes. Just a day later and the blonde was stuck to her like a barnacle and she couldn't do squat to detach her.

Someone landed in the seat beside her, and Char tossed her head in acknowledgement of her sunbae.

"Yo," she greeted. Rinzen narrowed her eyes at Charlotte and nodded, before slumping down in her seat and crossing her arms. The notebook was produced from her floor length skirt and she flipped it open, scribbling on a diagram of something that looked occult and dangerous. It was a wonder the older girl hadn't been expelled already; after all, she _was _the reason that a couple of the senior populars had needed plastic surgery.

Rinzen made no effort to appear attentive as Faragonda and the teachers ascended to the stage and took their seat. Charlotte let her husky alto fall slightly behind Aurea's sweet, if untrained, soprano as they sang the school song. Once they were all done with that nastiness, they sat; the unison was off, though, since most of the others had expensive designer skirts to smooth down and dust off before they sat. Aurea's mouth tightened slightly at that, so that Char barely saw it. The regular announcements were done, including the curfew rules that event the freshies would start ignoring two weeks in to term. Everything was mind-numbingly boring and everything hurt.

Maybe that was being a bit dramatic, but once the double doors at the back of the hall burst open and a diminutive lady in seven inch platform heels strutted down the central aisle, dressed in clothes fit to sear the eyes right out of Char's head. As she swept down the aisle with a personal assistant and three cameramen in tow, her eyes scrutinised the crowd. For a second, the woman's scarily blue eyes lingered on Charlotte, scanning her up and down as if assessing her (or undressing her, that could be it); she didn't like it, one bit. Aurea got the same treatment, and Char narrowed her eyes as the blonde girl looked away, her usually beaming smile smoothed into an expression of impassivity. Claire ducked her head to avoid the woman's gaze as Ellie pretended to fiddle with her hair. Rinzen met the woman unflinchingly, her dark eyes hard and unreadable.

Excruciatingly slowly, the strange lady sashayed up to the stage, taking the mic and grinning as whispers suddenly broke out in the crowd like a highly contagious rash.

"O to the M to the G, that's Coco Starr, from Magix TV!" a sophomore gushed, fanning herself. "OMG, she produced _reality TV shows_! Mummy told me so; she was one of the producers of _Pauper to Princess_!"

Her friends bobbed their heads and squealed like excitable chipmunks. Ellie could not for the life of her suppress and eye-roll. Claire nudged her and rolled her own eyes.

"- and a select few Alfea students will be starring, along side Red Fountain students-" A chorus of giggling and squealing interrupted Faragonda mid-sentence. Rinzen scoffed and blew her hair out of her eyes. Faragonda cleared her throat for silence and waited patiently as Coco Starr stood beside her, hand on one cocked hip.

"As I was saying, a few of you will star in Magix TV's new reality show, Charmed Life: Behind The Swords And Spells!"

Coco swiped the microphone away from Faragonda, and beamed a hundred megawatt smile. "That's right, students of Alfea! Magix wants to see _you_ and _your life_ on live!"

Charlotte had a feeling that nothing would end well.

* * *

Heath breathed in, counted seven seconds, and breathed out. Another seven seconds, another breath, then seven more and a release. Then, he dove into the mess of electrical connections that was the aether grid of the matter displacer in front of him.

His physical body stayed still, rough fingers still framing the grid interface in a diamond, making contact with the etched and studded glass with only his fingertips. His 'other' body, the one that was linked to his powers and manifested itself only in the metal and electricity that drove the great and small machines around him, came to consciousness and wove through the threads of electrical signalling between the contact points on the aether grid. Blue lights sizzled and flashed around him, bright and fluctuating in colour on the soft blue glow of background energy. Frequencies and algorithms flashed as impressions in his mind; it was difficult to explain just how he knew where to move and what to search for. If he could just find a spot where that signal scrambled, then he could root out the problem with the displacer and the anti-gravity plate...

_There_. Finding the sweet spot, his physical body gently placed the delicate glass interface panel on two padded plastic rests and grabbed the spark-iron on his left. Gently, he touched the needle-fine tip of the tool to the sweet spot, guiding his hand with his meta-self. The spark sizzled through the contact point, appearing as a bright white slash in his 'other' vision, overlapping over the physical vision clouding over as his concentration wavered. He took a fortifying breath and immersed himself more deeply, reaching out and trailing invisible hands across the flashing mirror surfaces. Heath liked interacting with mechanical things- trailing around in the inner workings was soothing, simple; electronics were colder, hard-edged, black with trailing green data streams that warped and wiggled as he swam through them.

As he drifted through the network, soft whispering voices brushed the fringes of his meta-entity, echoes reflected off the metal and glass of the interface. Slowly, he allowed his consciousness to slip and fan out in a dissipating wave, breaking free of the constraints of the aether grid and trailing through the consciousnesses of the machines in his room. As the wave of his other self passed through his tablet computer, it flared to life briefly in greeting, displaying a dancing cactus swaying from side to side. The holographic dragon on his bookshelf took flight from its perch and did a loop-de-loop. His hoverboard hummed to life and floated a few inches off the floor, its anti-gravity plate glowing a soft white instead of its usual blue. When he passed through his alarm clock, it beeped at him and flashed its LEDs-

_10:34 a.m.?!_

Swearing, he shot out of his seat, grabbing at his hooded jacket on the coat-rack near his door and slamming the door shut, the electronic lock engaging with a burst of signal which he mentally fired. Still cursing, he touched his fingertips against the wall as he ran down the corridor with one arm in his jacket, using the meta as a conduit to access the wiring beneath. His consciousness melted into the data stream, and he cursed some more when the feeds from the surveillance cameras in the auditorium told him that the opening assembly of the ear was more than half-way over without having attracted his notice. He crashed down the hallway and around the corridor, and the lift even brought him up to the auditorium floor extra-fast once he nudged the velocity control urgently. The surveillance cameras turned a helpful blind eye so there wouldn't be any evidence of his tardiness, and he sent out a great rushing wave of thanks, grateful that he'd taken the time to wander around and acquaint himself with all the machine around campus, whether directly or indirectly.

He burst through the doors, pulling his other sleeve on and galloping down the aisle to snatch a free seat, before juddering to a screaming halt. There was a man in a very shiny suit staring at him full in the face. There was a sea of boys staring at him from all angles, and a spotlight on him. Heath had a sudden sinking feeling. All that hard work, to stay out of sight and out of the circles, gone to waste. He'd blown his perfectly good set-up, where he could work in peace without interruption from any obnoxious meddlers, without fear of accidentally exploding an creating a _very_ messy situation...

When the shiny-suited man pointed at him, the ball of dread nestled low in his stomach grew exponentially larger.

"That one. He is our first lucky star," the shiny man said, echoing over and over in the ears of his meta-self as the machines around him reflected and repeated the phrases again and again. That went down like a ton of bricks. Heath felt his shoulders tighten as he instinctively froze. That sinking feeling never signalled any good for anyone, ever.

* * *

**A/N: Hiya everyone~ This chapter features the rest of the main charas, Chairo Svernare, Ellie Marsh, Claire Knightly and Heath Elron, plus my other character Haya Koizumi. The dynamic of things is really going to get hectic once they all meet each other officially *anticipates* Thanks for all the lovely reviews, you guys make me smile *sends out virtual huggles* Shoutout this chapter to Meteorthunder3, who helped me with the title fo the reality TV show. Keep sending in those antagonists, and shoot stuff at me that you want to see in the reality TV show :) I'm thinking back to school ball, anyone?**

**ILY babes ^u^  
**


	7. 4: Peach Iced Tea

**4: Peach Iced Tea**

"Somebody get this boy a _bronzer_!" Haya yelled, fisting his hands in his ponytail. The other stylists rolled their eyes and ignored him as he continued to rant. "For gods' sake, even my sheer pressed powder is too dark for this boy's skin tone!"

As Haya continued to yell at his snickering stylist friends, Chiaro ducked his head and toyed with the sleeves of his sweater as the boys on his left and right shot looks at him out of the corners of their eyes, trying desperately not to laugh. Haya thwacked them both on the heads as the girls styling their hair started getting pissed off at their non-compliance; they got pissed at Haya instead since two mirrored hand prints were in evidence in both boys' hairdos and the girls hadn't the bother to fix them up. In the end, after rooting through twenty different make-up bags, a supply van, and the costume make-up kit that stood waist-high on Chiaro and rolled around on wheels, Haya finally found a little pot of loose powder and a mousse foundation in shades called Milk and Ivory respectively.

In short order, his face was covered with a light layer of both in strategic areas, just to reduce any chance of unfortunate shininess under the heavy spotlighting of the audition studio.

Even though the boys on his right and left had started their hair make-up earlier, Chiaro still finished before them, since all Haya had to do to his hair was run a soft brush through it and mist it with shine serum. What was he even doing here, prepping to audition for that ridiculous show? He didn't need the exposure, the burns he'd get from being under spotlights for too long, the stylists make-up artists and hair dressers pulling him back and forth; that was even without the crazy fans. This was more Xander's thing than his.

Then he remembered the five-figure sum they were paying for each episode, give or take a bit depending on ratings.

Chiaro obediently lifted his chin and closed one eye as the other followed the hypnotic movement of Haya's hand as it slowly brushed gel eyeliner along the lashline. As he reached the outer corner of Chiaro's eye, he angled and flicked slightly, not much, but just enough to play on the natural shape of his eyes. Five figures in a double-digit season run. He would bear it, act his roles to perfection not for want of money but for love of his parents, who struggled to pay for his partial scholarship even without the burden of travelling back and forth between him and Aurea when they were dangerous together...

His mind had slipped, slightly, and Haya had turned him around from the mirror while he'd been out of it. The older boy hunched in front of him, fiddling with a small clear pot containing a sort of peachy-pink gel.

"Smear your index finger in that," Haya ordered, and Chiaro nodded, dipping his finger in the stain. "Now swipe it across your bottom lip, don't worry about getting the stain all into the corners and stuff."

He didn't know why he was doing what he was told, but Haya was looking at him so intensely that he felt slightly intimidated. So he did and he popped his lips like he'd seen his mom do after putting on lipstick (of course Haya had to tell him to, he didn't know this stuff if he wasn't told). Haya beamed bright enough to blind him and turned him around to face the mirror. By then, a bunch of the girls doing hair and make-up had gathered around the table and the brightly lit mirror which Haya worked at, giggling and making awed faces at him like so many starstruck fangirls.

He had his work cut out for him, picking out his own face among the wave of so many symmetrical, porcelain faces, but he eventually found himself, a milk-skinned spectre with soft, shiny raven's wing hair and a lush, rosy mouth. He licked his lips and Haya whacked him upside the head for wiping away a bit of the sheer lip stain; a couple of girls grinned and started walking off, saying stuff about 'his delicious, naughty tongue' and a change of underwear or some such thing.

"Damn, Hayana, you didn't have to do much. I just want to lick 'im into shape already, sans anything," a tall redhead yelled across the room. She seemed to forget that he, and about ten other boys from his year, were still in the room. And then a choice phrase about his collarbones slipped out, making him redden furiously and the jaws of the other boys drop.

Between the tongue thing and the collarbone thing, he was in for it once it was all over.

* * *

"Class 2A, please report to multi-purpose centre 3," the PA buzzed. Claire sighed, clicking her pen so it wouldn't dry out and packing up her class materials. On Coco Starr's insistence, they were _all _auditioning for that 'dramality' (did they have to invent brain-killingly stupid words?) and today was the day for the second years. The whole thing, from start to finish, would take over half the day, from make-up and styling to a screen test, photo test and audition video. Well, she would debate the term 'auditioning', since it really was more like scouting for the ideal type to star in that reality TV series, regardless of their willingness to actually participate. It didn't really matter much to her. As much as Claire was excited about getting dolled up for free, that was as far as she really wanted to go. Her fingers stiffened and she fumbled with her notebook for a moment. She wouldn't risk it. She had suffered to get where she was that day; even if nobody wanted to be her friend and she wasn't the best (just close to it) at anything, she was pretty happy and she was _safe_.

_Safe is what matters. Don't let anything jeopardise 'safe'._

One of the other girls accidentally bumped into her in their eagerness to exit. Waving their hands rapidly, the dark-skinned blonde blurted an apology before bustling along on her way, hands clasped around the straps of her cute little backpack. Claire shook her head. She was that girl in first year, bouncing around and being so nice and good at stuff and involved that people started getting suspicious of her, honestly, pure intentions. Maybe she got jaded between last year and this year, but she knew that people talked about her, wondered about her and slandered her like she was deaf, not quiet when alone. Maybe she just shone too bright and burnt herself out, leaving a hollow, faded impression leached dry by the effort it took to please everyone who didn't want to be pleased.

In her musing, she nearly bumped into the door-frame before catching herself and actually walking through the doorway. The multi-purpose centre was awash with activity, brightly lit and shoved full of fold-up tables, lined with mirrors and filled with stylists bustling around the girls already seated at the tables. Someone took her hand unexpectedly and she jumped, flinching from the contact. She relaxed when the girl who'd grabbed her hand, a stylist in an apron and glasses with blonde hair piled atop her head.

"Hi, I'm Meg," the stylist said. "Let's get you to a chair, okay?"

As Meg tugged her along, she called back at Charlotte, "Are you wearing any makeup now? How much? Is it waterproof?"

She shook her head at the back of Meg's until she realised head-shaking wasn't an audible phenomenon. "Um, no, I'm not wearing any make-up right now."

The stylist steered her to a folding chair, sitting her down and grabbing a bottle of primer and a make-up sponge. "A bareface girl? Good, because we're running low on make-up remover wipes. Some girls have seriously heavy-duty face-cakes. Now close your eyes, I'll be done in ten or so."

The stylist brushed the primer onto her face in quick sweeps, plopping the bottle down and picking up another, then a powder, lip colour, and eyeshadow before proceeding to eyeliner and mascara in quick succession.

As Meg did her work, Claire sank into the soundscape, half-listening and half-not, wincing as a couple of the brats shrieked about having their make-up removed and trying not to giggle as stylists scolded them for bad technique, poor quality make-up, or just relying too much on products to create an appearance that was way beyond reality.

An unusual commotion rose from her left, and Meg yelled, "What?"

Another stylist answered, "Hayana wants the palest shade of foundation and powder that we have bar white. I dunno, something about a flower boy and him needing a bronzer?"

"Wait, does Haya want the bronzer or the foundation plus powder? Does he want liquid or powder?"

"I dunno, just talk too him yourself- here, have the phone-"

"_Meggie, I need you to drop everything and send the palest shade of foundation that you have in your possession, seriously, this kid is like a _vampire_- Even my own kit was too dark for him-_"

"Woo, that's some serious lightness there," Meg whistled. "I think I have some Nocturne stuff in my kit- lightest, right?"

"_Yeah, as light as you can go without being white- I don't want this kid to look like a sheet, I just want to play on his delicious skin tone._ _Oh, yeah, it's probably better if you get a mousse foundation._"

Claire wondered vaguely how pale this boy must be to warrant such a shade of make-up. Maybe he was an albino? A slight pressure on her bottom lip from a lip brush distracted her and she parted her lips slightly to allow the brush to fill the contours freely.

"Gotcha," Meg said. "I'll pop it over to you in two, okay?"

"_Thanks a bunch, Meg, see ya!_"

Claire opened one eye experimentally, but Meg whacked the top of her head out of reflex and she yelped, shutting her eye again. The stylist brushed something across her eyelids and set her brush down with a tap.

"Done," she said. "Now you can look in the mirror."

When she did, she was pleasantly surprised. The girl in the mirror fluttered her long, dark lashes, and flashes of gold and turquoise flashed across her eyelids as she blinked. As a shy smile overtook the mirror-girl's face, her golden-tan, lightly blushed cheeks dimpled, showing off straight teeth. She shook her head slightly, dark corkscrew curls bobbing around her face

"There you go, doll," Meg said, patting her shoulders. "Go knock 'em dead."

* * *

"Imagine you're going to a club with your best friends and a-" the interview woman tittered slightly for effect, "- comes up and asks for your number. What would you do?"

Charlotte cocked her head to one side, mock-thinking. Her face felt heavy with the makeup they as good as forced on her, and as her mind drifted a bit, she wondered how Rinzen-sunbae could tolerate having her eyes ringed with such gunk all day, every day. Budweiser the producer, Interview Woman and her frantically note-taking aides stared at her expectantly, and she shifted, thoroughly finished with her charade.

"First of all, I don't go clubbing. If ever I did, I would be alone, and if ever a boy came up to me I'd tell him hell to the no and castrate him with a broken beer bottle. But, yeah, the situation is null in the first place," she said, voice flat and expression blasé. One of the aides fumbled with her pen and dropped it on the floor as the girl next to her stared at her with mouth agape. Interview woman blinked and shuffled her papers as if trying to compose a response.

"Do you have any particular talents, Charlotte?"

"Not really."

"But I thought you said you were music major?"

"I play cello," she said, shrugging non-committally, slouching back in the seat and crossing her arms. She'd run through the basic procedure of name, age, planet of origin, power, so on and so forth. None of it was done with any enthusiasm and she had nothing really to show for what kind of impression she'd made so far. The shiny-suited Budweiser Abbey didn't look impressed as Charlotte draped herself over the chair, knees apart and arms crossed. She looked slightly away, crinkling her nose as if she saw something displeasing on the floor. Bud's (Budweiser made her want to piss herself laughing and was a bloody great mouthful, too) mouth tightened slightly. The girl before her, an incredibly pretty dark-skinned, dark-haired girl with striking but tastefully done makeup, had been a great deal more enthusiastic; Charlotte had just slouched in, sat down and tuned out.  
"Could you play for us, then?"

It hit her like an out-of-control freight train. _Could you play for us?_ Could she play for them, would she play for them; or would she be playing for a bare minimum three billion plus television sets dimension wide? She'd be exposed. Exposure to three billion potential fans, to scholarship board members at the best arts universities across the galaxy- she nearly choked on the thought. Just like that, her whole demeanour changed.

To play on interdimensional television, never mind the audience, was an extraordinary thing. To be paid for it was even better. To be paid well enough and to have a good probability of being exposed to trust members to be able to attend schools she wanted to go to... Well, she was at Alfea to encourage her talents and if this wasn't encouraging her talents then she didn't know her own name.

"Sure," she said, sitting up straighter and tugging on the black time-space string on her left wrist. It pulled on the connecting string around her cello's neck, and the instrument popped through time and space into her lap, trailing its bow. Quickly, she ran through her options, the things she could play well without sheet music. There was that one polka, and a somewhat sedate piece she'd adapted from the parts in a string quartet andante... and there was a short, dirty affair she liked to play to show off. It really had little technical merit, but it looked cool to laypeople... She hoped her frankly people-hating attitude earlier would play to her favour, if she kept cool and mysterious for the rest of it. It could work, she thought. Reality TV, exposure, scholarship, that would be her platform to achieving everything she could and wanted to be.

Charlotte grinned, mostly to herself. This might just be her ticket up.

* * *

Dom clenched his hands around his pen when the door opened and a crew of cameramen bundled through, wheeling a huge black hulk of a camera on a wheeled tripod. Behind the crew were a bunch of stylists and some producers clutching clipboards as if their lives depended on it. Kole twitched, staring relentlessly at his blank page as the boys around them started becoming self-conscious and what-not, running their fingers through their hair and straightening their shirts. The dark-haired boy beside him fiddled with his rolled sleeves, pushing them back up to his elbows as Dom tugged on the sleeves of his striped sweater.

"Hel_lo_, boys, it's Coco Starr!" A tiny lady in enormous, seven-inch platform heels tottered into the room, flashing a megawatt smile and flipping bright, super-blonde hair out of her eyes. Kole mock-shielded his eyes from the glare, and Dom rolled his eyes, elbowing the other boy as their History teacher put his whiteboard marker and textbook down.

"Excuse me," he said pointedly, pushing up his spectacles with one hand while the other ruffled his scruffy, ponytailed undercut. "I'm teaching a class here. If you need to set up for, well... _something_, then could you use a different room, please?"

"Oh, I'm sure you're quite mistaken," the Coco simpered, tone sugary and expression fit to cause an rash of diabetes wherever she went. Their teacher, Professor Yun Landry, crossed his arms and stood firm in the face of eyelash-batting. "We have express permission to film any and all classes running. It's official that all students will be auditioned, or haven't you read the debriefing file sent to you via you school email?"

Professor Landry sneered. "Who checks their school email anyway? Still, I must insist that you remove yourselves immediately."

Koel stood up at the same time as Coco smirked, "I'm afraid we can't do that."

"I'm outta here, Prof. Don't teach anything important while I'm out," he said flatly, shoving his stuff into his bag messily. Landry sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Sit down, Anderson," he ordered, but it was more of a token gesture than anything. "And the rest of you, page thirty two, questions three to eleven or so help you all."

Dom ducked his head to avoid being caught in Landry's line of fire. He ran a tight ship, and even if there were camera crews swarming the place, he wouldn't let them off easy work-wise. Still, Kole didn't listen to anyone and even the notoriously threat-happy Landry couldn't stop him when he was in a funk. Unfortunately, the tiny, shiny, overly-processed big kahuna Miss Starr didn't know that.

"Yes, _Anderson_, do," she said, sliding sideways to step in front of him as he slouched of the classroom, shoulders folded inward and hands shoved in his pockets. From his dark, scruffy hair, to his rolled sleeves, shredded combat boots and the crumpled jacket thrown over his messenger bag, he was every inch the sullen delinquent and the Miss Starr knew it as soon as he loomed over her.

"Move."

"But we should all get to know each other better shouldn't we? And we can't do that without all of us being present," she said, a glint in her eye. Dom put down his pen and slid his chair out slightly. If things were going to go into the toilet, then he'd have to be able to keep an eye on everything and jump on Kole's back if need be.

"Move it," Kole growled, still not meeting anyone's eyes. Landry slowly and unobtrusively slid his desk-drawer open and grabbed a cylinder of titanium that expanded into a telescopic bo staff. The tiny lady hardened and offered another sugar-coated smile that barely masked all the steel and snapping teeth that bristled beneath her skin- like a monstrous iron chihuahua of some sort. Dom blinked at his own metaphor and shook himself.

"I don't think so," Coco said, leering at him.

Everything from that point on was a bit of a blur, really. Before Dom really knew what was happening, there were three camera-men flat on their backs and the tripod on wheels had pitched over, the great big camera lying on the floor in shards. Coco started screaming once she realised the Kole had pinned her to a wall with one forearm pressed firmly against her throat. She kicked her heeled feet uselessly, dangling a few inches of the wall as Kole death-squinted her. Landry took off his glasses and rubbed his face tiredly.

"Kole, let her down and get the hell out of my classroom," he said, not looking at the boy in question. He was only too happy to oblige, after a final snarl and evil look, sweeping out of the classroom as the camera crew struggled to right themselves and reposition around the class. Dom stood, shovelling his things into his bag and kickign his chair under the desk. Landry gave him a look that dared him to move. Dom met his eyes levelly, and the professor gave a barely perceptible nod, and it was barely another five seconds before Dom squeezed past the camera crew in pursuit of Kole. Coco watched him leave, rubbing her throat. However the glint came back into her eyes as the boys still in class burst into sniggering and gossip. Coco strutted to the front of the classroom, swaying slightly more on her stilt-like footwear than ever. She clapped her hands twice and opened her mouth-

"_All of you! Out!_" Landry yelled, pointing at the door. His tone was so authoritative that even the little media mogul scampered on her way.

* * *

Some hours later in Magix TV's downtown production studio, Coco Starr and Budweiser Abbey argued vociferously over a table spread with photos and notes. After many hard hours of sorting through the various piles of audition material, they'd narrowed their field of potential stars down to about twenty students from each school.

"What exactly is so _special_ about this one? He doesn't even have a test photo and he _broke a camera_ to boot!" Bud groused, fuming at Coco as she indicated the blurry video frames which she'd printed out.  
"He's a loose cannon, and a violent one at that- we need at least one, as a plot driver at least if nothing else," Coco snapped. "And your choices are little better! 'Hell to the no', the broken beer bottle thing? Are you out of your mind?"

"She was _talented_, and ambitious. If that's not reality material, I don't know what is!  
"Well, someone the people will actually might want to watch might be a shot! They aren't even wearing this season's clothes! I know we need to have the whole ethnic representation thing, but there's nothing extraordinary about this, this Aurea, at all! She's too nice and too innocent to provide what we're looking for. And I don't understand how you somehow got a mute into your callbacks list, let along a girl who didn't even turn up to audition. In fact, there are only really two sound choices here and they're the two non-scholarship girls, who have both luxury and visual elements going for them. This is what the public wants to see!"

"How can you say you made sound choices as well?! This list of boys is really too much! I though you had better taste than vampire wannabes, supposed animal whisperers and the rest- generic, flat, without personality-"

"Without personality? Are you kidding me? I've covered _all_ my bases. And yours? Ha! They haven't the intellect to sustain interest for more than the initial fifteen second visual contact! And _for your information_, the pre-teen and teenage female democraphic will go _crazy_ for Chiaro Svernare!" Coco angrily produced a photo from her folio, of the milky-pale, dark-haired Chiaro looking over his shoulder slightly so that his perfect side profile was exposed. "This bone structure doesn't come around every day, you know!"

Bud sat down in one of the high-backed leather office chairs, rubbing his face. "Alright, this is going nowhere. Tell me your top picks and we'll agree to cut to a list of fifteen or sixteen for callbacks."

Coco sat down across him, a smug smile splashed across her face. "Good, good, good! We'll alternate. As you know, my first pick is Chiaro Svernare. Great looks; quiet, but his voice is to die for; and he's mysterious. We can play on that. Seychelle Zhao is a must- the concept of the only girl at Red Fountain is something we have to exploit."

Bud nodded. "My first pick is Katrina Velvertez- she's rich and attractive, which will go well with the whole 'luxury' aspect of the show. She's a party girl, not afraid to play dirty to get what she wants. Heath Elron is a given, is he not?"

As they passed deeper into the night, their list of choices boiled down into their final choice of callbacks.

**Red Fountain**

_- Chiaro Svernare, 3__rd__ year; the 'flower boy'_

_- Heath Elron, 1__st__ year; the mystery_

_- Kole Anderson, 2__nd__ year; the rebellious loner, loose cannon,explore dynamic with Dominique Rowan_

_- Dominique Rowan, 2__nd__ year; the sharp smart guy, set dynamic with Kole Anderson (Komin?)_

_- Xander Everest, 2__nd__ year; 'Mr. Popular', mean, 'luxury' aspect_

_- Lukas Madorie, 3__rd__ year;dragon rider, the exotic aspect_

_- Seychelle Zhao, 3__rd__ year; only girl in RF- plot opportunity, stoic personality_

**Alfea**

- _Marlena Yancey, 1__st__ year; the relatable 'everygirl' underdog_

_- Aurea Primavere, 2__nd__ year;the 'clingy affectionate', loss of innocence plot?_

_- Claire Knightly, 2__nd__ year; princess with a bad past, luxury and angst aspect_

_- Charlotte Yukihoru, 2__nd__ year;outspoken rebel, the talent aspect_

_- Kat Velvertez, 2__nd__ year; party girl, drama element_

_- Alexandra Leano, 2__nd__ year; attention seeker, princess, the 'manipulator'_

_- Ellie Marsh, 1__st__ year; cute element, angsty background_

_- Rinzen Jang, 3__rd__ year; ?_

Coco closed her designer leather folio with a decisive snap, and Bud rose from the table.  
"Eleven a.m. tomorrow?" Bud asked, straightening his suit jacket. Coco nodded, brushing down her skirt.  
"I can't wait."

* * *

**A/N: Hullo guys, it's your horrible author here. I'm sorry for the hold-up with this chapter (I think I scared a couple of people into thinking I wouldn't keep slogging on wih LoL); schoole started again and I just had trouble with this chapter. Next chapter is callbacks for our underdog heroes~ **

**Submitters, please review and tell me who you think should make the reality TV show's main cast. BTW not all main characters will be in the reality TV show, but they will stay main characters. It's just a bit hard to figure out fifteen people in a TV show and you really wouldn't see that on the kind of TV show I have in mind. That doesn't mean I don't love you guys and your characters. I love you all and my choices are plot choices made based on the opportunities that certain character arrangements and dynamics give the story! **

**Anyway, I'm a slow updater so please don't panic if the next chapter isn't up within a week; it just means I've been a bit busier, not that I've abandoned ship. Please continue to read and review and hopefully enjoy ^u^  
**


	8. 5: Grape Soda

**5: Grape Soda**

Mars pulled her cardigan up to cover her bare shoulder, picking absently at the loose top-stitching. on her pink, blue and yellow polka-dot drop-waist dress. It was one of the nice, pretty things she owned and clashed spectacularly with the rest of the things in her wardrobe, save for the sky-blue cardigan which she currently wore. Pushing her sleeves up, Marlena pulled her hair out from under the strap of her sling-bag and fluffed her twin tails. As of yet, the holding room was empty and she could hear herself scuffing the toes of her puffy high-tops on the fairly ambiguous carpet floor. Pouting, she took a seat and wondered what she was wasting her time on before pulling out her little game console and prodding the on button with one finger. To be frank, she had been _very _surprised when the PA system had called her up to the front office and the secretary had told her she had an hour to make herself neat and get her little butt to Red Fountain. To Mars' knowledge, she hadn't left anything on the boys' school campus, nor had she dragon-kicked someone in the face by flailing accident (actually, she hadn't been on the other campus at all was at a complete loss how she'd actually ended up in the right place).

The door to the conference room opened as she slid her chair out, and a boy squeezed through, ducking slightly and putting one hand on the top of his head to protect himself from the unlikely but possible head-bump that the door frame constituted. Ruffling his shaggy white hair with the same hand, he stuck the other in his pocket and quickly sat across from her. Curiously, she poked a random button on her came console as she tried to conceal her staring. He was seated sideways in his chair, his impressive shoulders slightly hunched and staring straight in front of him. As soon as he shifted around, Mars' line of sight snapped back to her game. She tapped the touch screen and loaded her saved game, toggling the right button and setting off on her tiny digital adventure. Within a few minutes, she was completely engrossed and engaged in a life-or-death boss battle with less than half health. Her pixel character breathed out a jet of flame, but the giant fuzzy rabbit boss with big teeth and ridiculous claws smacked into her and sent her flying. The fire power was knocked out of of her and she reverted back to 'normal', powerless form. In quick succession, she took three hits, and her health bar went down into critical levels. Mars panicked and frantically pressed the B button, jumping over the boss character and dodging to avoid getting hit again. She made a small, inhuman noise when she got knocked over again and the boss went in for the final blow.

In the split-second that she'd closed her eyes, the screen went black before lighting up again. She was quick enough to see it flash. Then, when she blinked again, it showed the defeated boss and her pixel-self dancing around with a full health bar hovering in the bottom right of her screen. Puzzled, her eyebrows furrowed and she bit the inside of her cheek. Acting on instinct, she looked up, and caught the eyes of the boy across from her. He blinked, before looking away hastily, chewing on his lip. Mars could not for her life make any understandable meaning of it. She should really stop over-thinking things before she broke her brain or something. The door opened again, and a tiny little slip of a girl, with a cute puffy bob and a face that didn't match her loose navy t-shirt, red and white knee shorts and canvas trainers, trotted into the room. She looked around quizzically, before choosing a seat to Mar's right. She looked at the both of them and pulled a thin, worn notebook from her back pocket. Next to arrive were a pair of boys, the taller of whom topped the shorter redhead by a good five inches, if not more. The taller one scowled, letting his dark hair fall into his face and glaring at all of them before stalking to a seat as far as humanly possible from the rest of them. Rolling his eyes, the shorter redhead threw his hands in the air and followed.

Mars had been very early or the others had been _very late_, she thought. The rest of the group didn't arrive until a good twenty minutes later. A tall blonde with a ponytail swaggered in in a slightly scorched chambray shirt and heavy boots. An equally tall Asian girl, dressed in form-fitting black, turned a poker face on him and tried to shove his arm off her shoulders. They'd barely cleared the door before a bouncy, dark-skinned blonde tugged another Asian into the fray as the girl tugged her hood down over her forehead like one of those fugitives in the action thriller movies she watched as a kid. Mars almost didn't notice another dark-haired boy slipping into the room and taking a seat unobtrusively beside the squabbling senior girl and blonde companion. He didn't say a word or look up at anyone, let alone greet them, he simply folded his elegant white hands in his lap and closed his eyes, looking for all the world as if he were asleep. That was strange of him.

A girl with dark corkscrew curls, dressed in a frankly cute collared blouse and mint-green jeans, bumped shoulders in the doorway with buff, blonde RF boy. He so positively reeked of aftershave that she could smell it across the room. He leered at the girl, and she ducked her head, scurrying to a seat beside the youngest-looking girl. Mars hurriedly put away her game console when a team of assistants came in, holding huge boxes of paper. Following them were the head teachers of the two schools and finally, the producers of the show they'd made callbacks for. Mars didn't fully understand why they were being called back, or why there were so _many _of them; she didn't know of a single TV show that had thirteen main characters and she sure as hell didn't want to watch one like it. Besides, they were all ignoring her anyway and she didn't know if she could live with people who looked so aloof and distant and un-freaking-approachable all year. A stack of papers as thick as her thumb landed on the table in front of her, and Mars flinched instinctively.

The tiny lady, this time with shocking blue hair, a spectacularly loud fuschia and shamrock green skirt suit with a huge collar and matching patent t-strap platforms, clapped her hands twice as if announcing a game they would play. That was a less than exciting prospect, and the rest of them seemed to realise it too.

The white-haired boy folded his shoulders, hunching and slouching slightly instinctively to make himself less noticeable. The smaller dark-haired boy, done pretending to be asleep, folded his incredibly slim, long-fingered hands on the table, assuming an expression of polite indifference. Headmistress Faragonda smoothed her skirt down and sat, while Headmaster Saladin leaned his staff against the table. The door slammed open again, and another girl, probably a year above Mars, sashayed in with swinging hips. Her wavy, rose-coloured hair swished about her elbows, topped with a completely unnecessary pink sunhat, which shaded large hazel eyes and a nose of remarkable formation- one that would suggest some sort of human intervention. Tottering to a seat in cut-out wedges that rivalled Coco Starr's for dangerous height, she shrugged off a new-season carnation pink blazer to reveal a dare-to-bare white and pink bustier. The blonde-ponytailed boy blinked, recoiling with a slight lip-curl, and the senior all in black rolled her eyes.

The new girl flashed a blindingly white smile and deposited her designer handbag in the seat beside her.

"Hi!" she cooed. Coco appraised her coolly, but didn't say anything. "Sweet of you to wait for me-"

She was interrupted by the door opening, _again_, and slim blonde strutted into the room, with a similarly provocative pastel outfit and near-identical white handbag. She sat a few seats away, across the table and close to the leery blonde boy, eyeing the rose-haired girl dubiously.

"Well," Coco said, suddenly smiling again. "Let's all introduce ourselves, around the table, okay? Starting... with...you!"

The redhead flinched, looking up at Coco with big, startled amber eyes. "Me?"

Coco nodded, saying patronisingly, "Yes, you, honey."

He shifted, looking distinctly uncomfortable with all eyes on him. "I'm Dominique Rowan, second year."

Coco and Bud looked at him expectantly. "And...?"

"Well," he said, rubbing the back of his head, "I'm from Valkyria...?"

He stopped talking and stared at Coco and Bud with an expression that said _what do you want from me?_

They didn't press further. The boy beside him said, "Kole Anderson," and not much else. The little girl was next, and she scribbled in her notepad, holding it out for inspection.

_Ellie Marsh, 1__st__ year, age 15_

Wow, she really was the youngest, then. The rose-haired, sun-hatted girl was next, and she simpered, waving delicately and swishing her hair.

"I'm Alexandria Leano," she said, smiling in the megawatts (enough to make more than one other flinch). "I'm in second year at Alfea and I'm the princess of Altaria and I'm the fairy of illusions!"

The producers seemed pleased with her, compared to the others who had gone before. Before she knew what was going on, it was Mars' turn and she fiddled with a pigtail, fleetingly catching the eye of the white-haired boy.

"Um, I'm Mars Yancey," she said, "I'm in first year, and I'm the fairy of moon and space- and of derpy expressions. Yeah," she said, smiling derpily (in her mind, at least), "that's me."

The white haired boy looked at her out of the corner of his eye and covering his hand with his mouth (she could still see his eyes crinkling with a small smile). She looked at him curiously. Was he internally snort-laughing at her?

"I'm Aurea Primavere," the bouncy dark-skinned blonde said, bumping up and down in her seat slightly. "I'm the fairy of light, in second year. Let's all become close friends, okay?"

Her friend slouched even more into her seat, ignoring the rest of them and turning her face away from the producers' expectant expressions.

Aurea laughed in slight embarrassment, rubbing the back of her neck. "This is Charlotte, also in second year. She doesn't talk much."

"Claire Knightly," the other dark-skinned girl said, fiddling nervously with her bracelets but smiling brightly nonetheless. "Second year, too. I'm the fairy of time."

Next, on the other side of the table, was the blonde girl, picking at non-existent on the neckline of her wispy little blouse. Coyly looking under her lashes at the boys and the producers, she said, "I'm Katrina Velvertez, also a second year."

Seemingly, she understood the value of keeping all her cards close to her barely-covered chest.

The boy beside her had long since moved on from leering unpleasantly at Claire to staring at said chest, and actually had to be shoved to break his fixation. Of course, it was the other blonde boy, who reached across the White Hair and gave the drooling imbecile a firm shove off his chair. Luckily for him, he caught himself before he fell, shooting the senior an evil look before smiling charmingly at the rest of the room. "Xander Everest, but you lovely ladies can call me Xan."

Xander proceeded to run his hands through his hair and pat down his jacket, smoothing it down and against his body to emphasise his physique. Mars noted that Pippy (she couldn't actually be bothered to recall her name, and besides, who wouldn't love an 'affectionate' nickname from her totally creative acronym, putrid-in-pink?) and Kat were the only ones even vaguely impressed- most of the other girls and guys looked vaguely uncomfortable, while the senior girl simply crossed her arms and curled her lip, throwing one leg over the other.

Mars nearly flailed herself off her chair when she heard the white-haired boy speak.

"Heath Elron," he said, husky and deep as if he didn't speak much, or had just woken up. It sent an involuntary shiver up her spine. "First year."

He glanced at her for a split second, and she stared at him openly, utterly confused. It didn't show on her face, but then again, not much did through the wall of derpiness that was her entire existence. His eyes widened fractionally and he hastily looked away, blinking.

"I'm Lukas Madorie," the ponytailed boy said, nodding his head in acknowledgement, grinning. "Third year. So watch out."

He elbowed the girl beside him. She scoffed, tossing a wave of jet-black hair out of her face. He nudged her again and she rolled her eyes, sitting straighter with an expression of _if I must_.

"Seychelle Zhao, third year, and unlike this jokester here, when I say you watch out, you better," she said flatly. Seychelle then proceeded to slouch into her seat, looking at the wall at the back of the room with a scowl on her face.

If Mars thought Heath's voice was totally unf, then hearing the boy in solid black was like being hit by a freight train. He rested his elbows on the table, propping his chin on one hand as the sleeve of his sweater slid down to expose a milky-white wrist. The other hand tucked his hair behind his ear as he licked his bottom lip.

"Chiaro Svernare," he said quietly. Mars picked her jaw up off the table as Charlotte twitched slightly in shock. _Seriously_. His voice was... like velvet and melted chocolate and falling rain. It was _that_ indescribably smooth. "Third year."

And her dreams were summarily crushed. Damn.

"Rinzen Jang," a voice said out of nowhere, one she recognised as straddling the border between male and female. The creepy senior girl from her misadventure in the greenhouse kicked heavy boots out from under an ankle-length black skirt, crossing them on the table as she stared challengingly at the producers. She tilted her chin up, and Mars was struck with just how sharp her features were. None of them could really formulate a response.

Then Seychelle nodded in acknowledgement, and Chiaro tipped his head to the side slightly, blinking at Rinzen with a rather listless expression. Lukas waved lazily and Rinzen tipped her chin slightly in response to all of them. Obviously, the seniors not only knew each other, but were a tight crew. Mars bit the inside of her cheek. If they were close already- if they felt comfortable among themselves-, then it would be hard to get close to them. Charlotte, to the left, propped one hand on her chin and let her gaze unfocus. Slowly but inexorably, it refocused on the same group of seniors and the boy on the fringe, toying with the corner of the paper at the top of his pile with an unreadable expression. _Chiaro_... the name sounded familiar.

_Chiaro, Chiaro, Chi-_

It was slightly startling but not entirely unreasonable. This Chiaro and Aurea's Chiaro had to be the same. Well, how many Chiaros could there be, wandering around in Magix? Charlotte had to admit that she was impressed that Aurea had managed to ensnare as fine a specimen of youth as he was. There was something very ethereally _transcendental_ about that face...

Reality slapped her hard across the face when Bud and Coco stood up, clapping and exclaiming again.

"You're all here," Bud began, "because _we_ want _you_ to star on Charmed Life: Behind the Swords and Spells!"

Actually, no, that was an errant hand, belonging to the flailing Aurea. Charlotte really questioned her taste, sometimes.

* * *

**A/N: Your horrible author-nim is back OTL *90 degree bow* Sorry for taking weeks and weeks :L tbh I had most of the chapter written and I really just needed to finish it off but exams ran me over like a rampaging buffalo so I was kind of shot for weeks. Anyway, what do you guys think? I'm also thinking about opening a LoL tumblr, just open to asks and situation requests and idrk other stuff like that. Anyway, sorry again ^^;; I hope you guys enjoy :)**


	9. 6: Earl Grey

**6: Earl Grey**

Shit was gonna go down.

By the way Rinzen hand tilted her head to the side and narrowed her eyes dangerously at the shiny-suits- to the point where Ellie could vaguely see wisps of smoke rising off the collar of Coco Starr's suit-jacket- she was not in agreement with that course of action. Seychelle, she could see, was otherwise outwardly unemotional but unable to keep disgust off her face. Mars and Lukas seemed to thing the both of them were being trolled. Kole nearly got up and walked out, except for Dom's painfully tight grip on his forearm and the nails digging through his sleeve. The redhead let his head fall forward toward the table, but Kole's hand darted out and cushioned it before it had the chance to make contact. Ellie gushed inside over the fluffy pseudo-yaoi. Single sex schools did that to a girl.

Xander, Kat and Alexa smiled/leered graciously, as Aurea clapped in a girlish fashion and Charlotte rolled her eyes. Claire fiddled with the hem of her blouse, chewing on her lip. The Red Fountain seniors seemed largely dismissive of the whole thing, like it was some annoyance that could be ignored until it went away. Seychelle seemed like the type to use violence first and negotiation later to solve problems.; rather the same went for Rinzen only she looked like she could be _very _creatively threatening. Either that, or Claire's ability to judge other people's characters was glitching.

"Is anyone going to say anything else, or can we go?" Charlotte asked bluntly, crossing her arms. Kole took that as an opening to simply get up, hauling his stack of papers, Dom, and by extension Dom's stack of papers out of the room with the lifted-chin hauteur of the righteously indignant.

Lukas decided that he, too, could no longer stand the affront to his senses that the shiny-suits presented. He and Seychelle got up, linked arms and swept from the room. Well, Lukas swept and Seychelle swagged, but that was really immaterial, considering how Charlotte, and Aurea, and then Mars and Ellie were hauling ass as well. Claire sent a briefly pleading look to Ellie, who may or may not have caught it. Still, it was already too late considering that she'd already made the choice to get up and leave. Chiaro got up after them, tucking his hands in his pockets and papers under one arm, blinking sleepily and really not paying attention to the swooning left in his wake.

Heath stood and left a little too quickly to be unobtrusive, considering just how much his build resembled that of a mountain. Then it was just her and the other two girls in second year judging her hard and Xander, with whom she felt distinctly uncomfortable. Rinzen had dematerialised to some remote location again, probably to plot her fantastic career dispensing technically illegal apothecary's goods. Her comings and goings really couldn't be traced. Claire doubted that even if she touched the traces Rinzen could've left on the furniture that she'd be able to track the other girl's history. Her powers worked too well when she didn't need them to and glitched when she did. Besides, something she couldn't put her finger on told her that Rinzen didn't leave traces.

Claire ducked her head, rubbing her arms unconsciously and tidying the pile of papers in front of her. She didn't like it at all, being alone with people she didn't know who knew of her. At least the others, the ones who had left, hadn't- they'd been gutsy enough to take the chance and leave. Alexa had an annoying tic, playing with her hair with one gel-manicured finger and nibbling delicately at her swollen lower lip as Kat eyed her and Claire couldn't, wouldn't- her psyche wouldn't let her. Either she played it straight or she didn't play at all, and it was too late for option two.

Claire bit her lip. Where was Ellie when she needed her?

* * *

"Hayana Ailuro Koizumi," Seychelle said flatly, "is a rat bastard."

Rinzen rolled her eyes and applied a third coat of glossy black nail polish to her stubby nails as Seychelle rolled on her bed and settled on her back, her head dangling off one side and her feet the other. Lukas grinned, and went in to pinch cheeks, by Seychelle slapped him away before he got within much more than arms' reach.

"You smell, Lukas," she and Rinzen chorused at once. Lukas flinched and chuckled as Seychelle flopped around, peppering him with blows to the head and shoulders. Rinzen flung a green bottle at him and Lukas caught one-handed.

"Go wash your princess hair again, Lu," Rinzen smirked. "Keep the shampoo."

"What, because it's- Oh, odour neutralising," Lukas said, suddenly deflating into a puddle of embarrassment. Dropping to the floor beside Seychelle's head and shuffling to the low table to sit across from Rinzen, he toyed with the bottle of odour-neutralising shampoo while digging his feet into the plush carpet. Everything about Rinzen's space was clean and minimal, with dark walls offset by the large frosted glass window that let in the light from the balcony. A low, large bed was made up in black, and her table, desk and wardrobe were all done in white and brushed aluminium. The sole marks of decoration were the large, irregular geometric metal wall plaque and the thin measuring cylinders on the dresser. Black-stoppered and neatly labelled, they all contained varying levels of different coloured liquids. Seychelle did not want to think about what those liquids did or why the cylinder filled with ebony black was nearly three-quarters empty.

Lukas edged inadvisably closer as Rinzen casually continued to paint her nails. Meticulous as ever, the smears of black that did bleed onto her skin were immediately wiped into place with a pointed look and a slight tightening of her lips. It was strange, Lukas mused, to see such a commonplace thing going on with Rinzen the decidedly strange.

"Are you gonna take it?" he asked, prodding the contract papers sitting to one side of the other girl. Rinzen looked up from beneath heavy, dark lashes and snorted.

"You're piss crazy," she deadpanned, dipping her brush into the bottle of polish and swiping it over a half-painted nail. Really, that was all the explanation that Lukas needed because it really _was_ piss crazy of him to expect that Rinzen Jang would go on intergalatic television when she didn't like being in the presence of large groups of people with whom she had no association. Part of the reason she didn't like people and people didn't like her was her inability to censor any of the morbid, indiscreet, sadistic, homicidal or just plain psychotic things that came out of her mouth. Another unfortunate part of the Rinzen Effect, that and her excessively violent reaction to everything (well, she insisted that everyone else didn't have enough pain tolerance, but Lukas suspected that that was not the problem).

Seychelle rolled, rolled and flailed, flailed and rolled and finally settled on her stomach facing them. "Hey, are you guys even listening? I said Haya was a bastard and we went to saying Lu stank like we don't know what and now Rinjjang is painting her nails a strictly non-regulation shade with piano polish?"

"We were working on the assumption that Haya was always a bastard, Sey," Rinzen mumbled in intense concentration. Another smear of polish bled over the side of her finger and Lukas moved the table out of her arms' reach just in time to avoid a table flip. Rinzen settled for slamming the brush forcefully down onto the table. Turning to Sey, Lukas flipped his ponytail and sniggered at the expression of disgust plastering itself across the girl's face.

"He's a crazy bastard and we should smack him," he smiled at Seychelle, who looked at him with eyebrows askew. "Before you ask, of _course_ he knew before hand. You know he's busy as all get-out so obviously he wouldn't come for an impulse visit with no real reason. He even made you up before hand and you're just saying he knew about this whole-" (Lukas gestured) "-now?"

"I _know_," Seychelle growled, flinging herself at the pile of pillows heaped at the head of the bed. "Wish he'd give forewarning so I could go off-radar for a couple days instead of getting sucked into a publicity shitstorm."

Rinzen snorted. "Haya and forewarning don't belong in the same sentence. Haya and shitstorm, though..."

She trailed off suggestively and Seychelle sat up on the bed, running a hand through her mussed hair. "You aren't taking it, are you."

Rinzen snorted. "Don't like people, and I really still don't see the worth of money. If you want something, why don't you just take it?"

Lukas tipped his head to one side. "I'm... I don't know, Sey. I could always do with the extra cash, but once you go live, everything you do will go public."

"Including your sex life and if you read while taking dumps?"

Lukas blinked at Rinzen, who calmly blinked straight back before drying her nails with a squint.

"Gods, you're a weirdo, Rin," Seychelle muttered.

A great, sudden crash outside had Seychelle rolling forward off the bed and springing into a defensive stance. Lukas rushed to the balcony, hastily unlocking it and leaning out over the railing to see what was going on. His eyesight wasn't the absolute best- Rinzen's third floor room wasn't helping-, but he could make out the white-haired boy and the moody tall-and-dark wrestling in the quad with his redhead companion desperately trying to separate them.

"Oh, come on," Seychelle growled. "Seriously, that skinny little toothpick is going to get dumped on his ass."

The white-haired boy summarily dumped the aforementioned toothpick on his ass, but the scrapper got up and launched himself forward again, all thought of technique flying out the proverbial window.

"Seriously?" Rinzen deadpanned, cocking her head to one side and squinting at them. Lukas blinked and both she and Sey had popped down to the quad. As he turned from the balcony, he saw the super young freshie girl peering out over her own balcony. They made eye-contact and she seemed startled; she swung around quickly and hurried inside, eyes still widened in surprise. Lukas really, _really _hoped that she didn't have a case of '_senpai notice me_' as he dashed out of Rinzen's room and down the staircase to the ground floor.

By the time he got to the fight Dom had given up on 'separating' and had instead backed off to allow the fight to simmer down by itself. Seychelle had also given up on separating and had instead gone ahead and joined right in, landing a perfect spinning kick to one of the boys' face. Heath rolled with the blow, spitting slightly bloody saliva as he stumbled to one side. Almost too fast to see, he pivoted back and swung a backhand at Seychelle, who barely dodged out of the way before Kole threw himself at her in a mess of flying limbs. She ducked, but was clipped across the cheekbone with one of his fists; Seychelle dropped and swept his legs out from under him, and Kole fell hard on his back. Lukas had to praise his resilience, however, when he flipped right back up and rushed headlong at Heath, who threw another precise punch at Seychelle. Seychelle kicked Kole hard in the back, shoving him into Heath's punch.

They met in the centre with an audible smack, and the furiously enraged Kole managed, by some freak accident, to land an actual punch of some effectiveness to Heath's jaw. The white-haired boy's head snapped back, and he grew very still. Seychelle visibly perked up, and backed off immediately, sniffing and swiping at her bloodied nose with the back of her hand. Unconsciously, she held the other arm out to herd the redhead away from what her instincts were telling her was a disaster in the making. Lukas blanched. Sey wasn't stupid but she was a risk-taker, and if she was backing off then he had better not get close too. Alarm bells were ringing with him too- he'd worked with enough dangerous, volatile animals to know when one of them was about to explode. He was getting that sense now.

The freshie girl from the balcony, Ellie, trotted out of the stairway. Lukas made gestures to shoo her back up them.

"Don't," he said rather abruptly. "Don't get close. He's gonna explode and it won't be pretty."

She stopped, blinked, and nodded curtly, retreating to what he felt was a safe distance but not leaving totally. There was a tell-tale spark in her eyes that bespoke an intense curiosity and Lukas hoped it wouldn't get her into a sticky situations that she wouldn't be able to wiggle out of. Rinzen had disappeared off to somewhere else as Lukas felt a shiver run up his spine. Kole was still in close quarters with Heath and Lukas had to tell himself that barely seconds had passed. Heath slowly tilted his head down to stare Kole in the eye. Lukas shivered again, a bad feeling creeping over him. Heath was scarily still and quiet for someone who had just been socked in the jaw and- was he _glowing_?

He stopped beside Ellie and saw her gulp out of the corner of his eye. Heath's face slowly transformed from absolute blankness as a creepy little smile appeared on his face.

Oh dear. He was absolutely murderous.

* * *

When Ellie became aware of what was happening again, she was lying on the floor with a dazed senior sprawled beside her. Coughing slightly because of the dust floating in the air, she dusted herself off and got to her feet. Her ears rung, and her visions flashed with negatives of a white flash and a black blur in its centre, hazing green and red over the normal colours of what she saw. The disconcerting blur shifted every time she blinked and it was driving her in_sane_. Lukas coughed and sputtered a bit before levering into a seated position against the wall, shaking his head to rid himself of the ringing in his ears.

"What just...?" he muttered, bracing himself against the wall and sliding into a precarious standing posture. Ellie shrugged. She was at as great a loss as the older blonde.

The situation in the quad was rather less than self-explanatory. Ellie could really find no logical reason for the appearance of a crater that had blown out a solid ten foot radius of paving stones and grass. Kole was nowhere to be found, and she really hoped he hadn't been obliterated. That would be very awkward to deal with, even more so than having to explain what exactly happened to the quad in the first place. Movement in the corner of her eye alerted her to the fact that Seychelle had gotten up and unceremoniously slung the half-dazed Dom over her shoulder, before trudging into the stairwell with a huff. She was in no mood to deal with anything else, and her face was probably already swelling up. Ellie winced sympathetically. The senior would have a doozy of a bruise to cover the next day. Lukas exhaled and pinched the bridge of his nose, centring himself before taking a slightly wobbly step in the direction of the crater. Ellie picked through smoking rubble after him as he gained momentum and dodged carefully around the bits of debris and burnt grass.

Heath blinked at them as they approached him. His knuckles were slightly cracked and bloody, and he looked at them in confusion, shaking the dust and stone chips from his now dusty-beige hair.

"What just happened?" he asked. Ellie shrugged and made a face that said _you asking me?_

Lukas looked at Heath as if he really couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Are you serious?"

Heath nodded, a frown creasing his forehead. "Really, what happened?"

Lukas threw his hands in the air. "What- what even? I don't know, you tell me!"

"What?' Heath's expression of bamboozlement grew even more incredulous. "Hey, hey, don't look at me, I am _so_ not responsible-"

Ellie took the opportunity to pull quite firmly on Heath's sleeve and indicate the largely mangled quad.

"Oh," he said in a very small voice. "Oh, crap."

Later, Heath revealed that he'd completely forgotten what they were fighting about in the first place. Kole, whom Rinzen had popped out of the way of the brunt of Heath's freak-out, looked at him disbelievingly out of his un-bruised eye before screeching like a little girl as Dom swabbed the grazes running up his arm with a liberal dose of antiseptic. Rinzen plastered a black bandaid with little silver cross patterns over the scrapes on her cheek, before scowling and turning to fix her Heath-damaged manicure. Seychelle, draped over Rinzen's bed, allowed Ellie to hand her bruise balm and band-aids and made fun of both of them from afar. Lukas snickered at them, and poked Ellie between the shoulder blades. She flapped at hand at him and stuck her tongue out.

"Are you guys taking the offer?"

* * *

"Alright, who's taking the offer?"

The atmosphere, Mars mused, was very different the second time around. As usual, Lukas had an arm slung over Seychelle, but this time Rinzen leaned against him on the other side, applying a holographic top-coat to her black nails. Kole and Dom sandwiched Heath between the two of them, and the dark haired boy occassionally exchanged shoves and pinches with his light-haired companion. Dom rolled his eyes and looked at them with an exasperated smile. Ellie crossed her arms and nudged Dom, making mocking motions at the other two boys. Aurea smiled at Chiaro and waved him over, sensing and encouraged by the positive atmosphere floating off the boys and gals. Still dragging Charlotte by one hand, she plopped down beside Ellie and beginning an animated conversation with both her and Dom on her other side. Claire quickly took a seat beside Seychelle, slapping her bag down on the empty seat beside her to deter the ever leering Xander if she had to.

However, the tensions became palpable as they quieted and Coco Starr rubbed her lime-gloved hands together in anticipation. Seychelle took it as a sign to drop her forms unceremoniously on the table and kick her boots up as a sign of _make me, sucker_. Okay, maybe it was more M-rated than that, but it was probably better not to elaborate. Lukas followed suit and Rinzen produced her stack and a pen, scratching through a final line of text before presenting the contract for submission.

Chiaro bit his bottom lip briefly before pulling out his pile of papers. For his parents, he told himself, for his parents; he still wasn't sure if he was making the right decision. Aurea glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, a glance which morphed into a quizzical look. Chiaro sighed and sincerely hoped that Aurea hadn't taken the offer. A lurching in his stomach fueled the unease riddling his thoughts. He didn't want her pulled into this mess, since he had a bad feeling he'd be doing enough screwing up for both of them.

Seychelle glanced at Lukas and Rinzen, who both glanced at each other and covertly eye-brow wiggled at each other. Sey shoved her papers forward and smirked at the others. Lukas grinned and Rinzen mouthed something weird and morbid about what they could actually do for her if they really wanted her on the show. She scoffed. Fat chance she was going to get sucked into reality television.

Claire fiddled with the tassel on her sling bag and bit her lip. Mars glanced around, locking eyes with Heath for a second before forcefully shoving her papers forward. Ellie and Dom followed suit, followed with a bang by the ever belligerent Kole. Charlotte felt her insides twist with conflicting emotions. Sure, this was her ticket, but she had this sneaking feeling like the train she'd boarded was headed off the side of a mountain, one way trip.

* * *

**A/N: Aigoo it took a long time to write this ^-^;; Sorry for taking a long time to update~ **


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